two of Audiate’s jobs, five free apps that do them
two of Audiate’s jobs, five free apps that do themAudiate does two jobs — words that follow your voice, and a voice that is not yours. Neither job needs a subscription. These are the apps I use on a plain Windows PC, and what each one is actually for.
| the app | its job in this build | where to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Subtitle Edit | speech to captions, then fix the words and timing — Whisper is built in | nikse.dk/subtitleedit |
| Audacity | clean the voice, then change its pitch and speed | audacityteam.org |
| Voicemod | change the voice while you speak | voicemod.net |
| Camtasia | import the captions, style them, export the video | techsmith.com/camtasia |
| DaVinci Resolve | the heavier motion, grading and finishing work | blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve |
The one thing the paid app keeps: edit a word in its transcript and the timeline moves with it.
Everything else on the list — captions, timing, audio cleanup, the voice, the render — the five above cover.
The run, in order
- Record in Camtasia
- Clean the voice in Audacity, export WAV
- Subtitle Edit → transcribe → fix → export SRT
- Camtasia → import the SRT → style and animate
- Preview once from the top, then export
The settings that make it look professional
Captions that read well
- Two lines maximum, about a second minimum on screen
- Break at natural pauses, never leave one small word alone on a line
- Keep commands, names and numbers exactly as spoken
- Check the first and last minute twice
Camtasia caption style for lessons
- Clean sans-serif in white, with an outline or a dark strip behind it
- Near the bottom, clear of code and slides; yellow only for the word you are pointing at
- Big enough for a phone screen; few animations in technical lessons
Audacity, the short version
- Copy the track before touching it, then: noise reduction only when it is needed → clarity EQ → normalize
- Pitch for a different voice, tempo when the delivery drags; keep both gentle, listen on headphones
- Export WAV and drop it under the video, original track muted, then check sync
Voice recipes
- Deeper: pitch down a touch, a little bass, steady volume, no heavy reverb
- Radio: less low bass, more mids, mild compression
- Robot: distortion plus a short delay or echo
- Telephone: cut the deep bass and the highs, keep the mids
Need word-by-word social captions? CapCut Desktop is the optional extra route for karaoke-style animation.
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