Audio editing requires something different than any other form of editing. People generally use multiple tracks, need things like sound balance and other things. Bands need it to cut albums and podcasters need it to prepare shows. It’s a broad industry with a lot of solutions that work pretty well. A good DAW should allow you to handle multiple channels and various sound effects, and the most versatile ones have things like MIDI support and the like. There aren’t many options, but we think we’ve found the good ones. Here are the best audio editing apps and DAWs for Android.
The best audio editing apps and DAWs for Android
Audio Evolution Mobile Studio
Price: $ 9.99 with in-app purchases
Audio Evolution Mobile Studio is a pretty popular DAW for Android. It offers multi-track audio, MIDI recording, various samples and drum editors and other editing tools. There are also some recording tools like a metronome. Some tertiary features include Google Drive backup and full support to move the project to the iOS version in case you have an iPad. It’s reasonably decent and cheaper than most. The in-app purchases contain some plug-ins that add additional effects.
BandLab
Price: For free
BandLab is one of the better free audio editor apps on the phone. The app offers a 16-track editor, a sampler for creating your own instruments and a looper function for creating beat loops. It also offers over 300 virtual MIDI instruments, 180 effects, a looper and even a video clip editor. It’s not quite as powerful as some others, but the price is right and you can even post stuff on BandLab’s social media service after you’re done.
Cubasis 3
Price: Free Trial / $ 20.99
Cubasis 3 is the mobile version of Cubase, the popular PC-DAW from Steinberg. The mobile version isn’t quite as powerful, but it can get the job done. It offers an unlimited number of audio and MIDI tracks (the trial version has four each), time stretching, pitch shifting, over a dozen effects processors, 550 audio loops, and more. Projects created here also work with the desktop version of Cubase. Steinberg is also very easy on the process. It doesn’t last forever, but you can literally restart it as many times as you want.
Corrosive 3
Price: Free / $ 9.99
Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Caustic 3 lets you create a wide variety of instrument effects, loops, and sounds. These sounds can then be imported into other apps for future use. This has a number of synth pads, a mixer desk function that lets you manage things like reverb and delay effects, and even a song sequencer. It works pretty well for now. However, it appears that the developer hasn’t released an update since 2017, so we’ll be replacing this one sooner rather than later on the list.
Dolby One
Price: For free
Dolby On is technically an audio recording app. You record from the microphone and then you can play around with the audio yourself. Dolby On is different from most audio recorders in that it offers a surprisingly good post-production experience. The app has various audio effects to clean up things like noise, as well as an EQ to tweak your sound a bit. It’s a decent way to clean up recordings before porting them to something more serious. It records better than most full-service DAWs. Plus, it’s free.
FL Studio Mobile
Price: $ 14.99
FL Studio Mobile is one of the most popular audio editing apps for Android. It has a full editor setup, lots of effects, and tons of other features. It also supports Chromebooks. Some other features include hardware MIDI support, the ability to save in a variety of file formats, and extras like drum pads in case you need to create your own beat. There are in-app purchases for extra plugins if you’d like, but it’s optional. It’s a bit expensive, but it’s pretty effective.
Lexis audio editor
Price: Free / $ 6.49
Joe Hindy / Android Authority
Lexis Audio Editor is one of the simpler audio editing apps on Android. It leaves out a lot of the bells and whistles of its more expensive counterparts and relies on an overall simpler experience. The app includes a 10-band equalizer, smaller tools like tempo, speed, and pitch changes, and even things like noise cancellation. You probably won’t be doing studio-level stuff with it. That said, it’s definitely good enough for some TikTok meme sounds or other similar use cases.
KORG Kaossilator
Price: $ 19.99
KORG Kossilator is on this list for the same reason as Caustic 3. It’s not particularly useful for audio editing, but you can create a ton of different noises and sounds. You can even play entire songs if you are talented enough at it. It can make 150 sounds, a loop sequencer and some other nice stuff. You can create music here, record it and later paste it into a real DAW to complete the song. It’s quite expensive, but available for less a few times a year.
N-track studio
Price: Free / $ 0.99 – $ 4.99 per month / $ 29 one time
N-Track Studio is a decent DAW for mobile devices. It offers an unlimited number of audio, MIDI, and drum tracks along with effects, reverb, and other basic stuff like this. The user interface is clean and easy to use. It even has a built-in metronome for when you’re recording your own stuff. Some other features include the ability to share your recordings online, a 2D and 3D spectrum analyzer, a loop browser and sample pack, and more. It’s a bit buggy from time to time, but otherwise it works fine.
SunVox
Price: $ 5.99
With Kaossilator and Caustic 3, SunVox is at the forefront when it comes to sound generation. It’s a modular synthesizer with lots of customization options. You drop the sounds you want and then play them back. From there, you can record, import into another app, and edit as needed. Some features include support for up to 32-bit WAV files, multi-track WAV export, and loads of effects. It’s also reasonably priced with no additional in-app purchases.
If we missed great audio editing apps and DAWs, let us know in the comments. You can also click here to see our latest Android apps and game lists.
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