Microsoft MS-Paint.
Never failed me

 

If its for audio editing and nothing more then soundforge is pretty good indeed

 

Adobe Audition edit mode.

 

Reaper best all-round,
RX 7 best for cleaning/restoration,
Ocenaudio best free open source,
DaVinci Resolve best also-video-capable, also legally free

 

hi there,
To be a bit cheeky for a mo, it seems obvious that the best audio editing software in the world is gonna be... well... any of 'em, when in the hands of the best audio editor in the world.
.
As for me, I always found wavelab easiest to use, but i find myself increasingly simply using the daw timeline for basic jobs on single stereo or mono files.. you know, snip... snip... move... crossfade... plugs... it's all there.
when it comes to restoration work (especially manky old tapes) izotopes RX stuff helps a lot.
Good luck to your friend.

 

Best audio editing software in the world? There is not a "best" . All depends on what you are trying to accomplish. For example, for going to vocals my choice would be Celemony Melodyne. For creating professional vocal and instrument isolation and samples, I would choose ADX TRAX Pro 3 and ADX Track Pro 3 SP https://audionamix.com/

 

Last edited: Jan 23, 2019

What sort of audio editing? For chopping up a 4 minute song into clips I thought I would need to try a bunch and find what has fastest method (considering keyboard shortcuts, behavior of mouse) but have not gotten past Izotope RX7. It was fast ENOUGH for what i was doing considering fades/silencing, getting rid of peaks,etc, quickly switching between original and clips to save them, etc. They have done some things right that can be annoying.
I thought RX7 might be my choice for audio restoration and spectrum editing and I'd need something else for the quick and dirty stuff I tend to do, but the only others I have tried recently are Audacity and FL Studio's Edison. I hated the manipulation in both but still use Edison for some stuff....BUT practice with/learning the shortcuts may be my problem...
Still, the fact that somehow I did not need to learn/practice with RX7 almost at all implies something too.
Something as simple as access to most things with right-click and seeing all the shortcuts beside the commands can go a LONG WAY towards making an editor a favorite.
RX7's VST handling? Not sure... I made a separate folder for it to scan and only have 96 in there right now.
Most of those work fine so far.

 

For me Reaper. But IMHO the one you can use to the fullest.

 

You can edit in nearly any DAW - but if the task is editing only I prefer a dedicated application for the job.

Myself (daws):
I have several daws, but my first choice will always be Cubase which can do nearly anything for you (editing wise), but.......

Real (deep) editing (for me):
Will always be Wavelab because of workflow, plugin integration, overview and focus without too many disruptive elements (like in a daw).

Buy Wavelab elements cheap/test and see for yourself , then if you´re confident upgrade to pro.

That´s all

 

hmm, for audio editing alone, I would agree on wave-lab and adobe.

there was an audio editing program that was reeally expensive back in the days, it was a one-man show, one or a couple of programmers, and had an awful interface but was by many seen as "the best", the homepage was also very terribly handmade. I wonder if its still around, ill edit as soon i can remember the name.

 

http://bfy.tw/Lw0t

 

Seriously?

 

it must be one of those days. ;)

 

;-)

 

Who cares about what others say?