Guide ยท updated 2026-11-12
Audiobook recording software
Any audio editor can record an audiobook. The question is how much of the work after the reading it leaves to you. Here is what the software has to do, the usual choices, and a different way to do it.
What audiobook software has to do
Four jobs: record a clean voice; edit out the retakes and noises; master every chapter to ACX's numbers (loudness, peaks, noise floor, room tone); and export one 192 kbps MP3 per chapter. Most tools are built for the first two and leave the measuring to plugins and to you.
The usual choices
Audacity is free on Mac and Windows, and its ACX Check plugin measures a file against ACX's numbers. Reaper is a full studio with a fair licence and many narrators' favourite for punch-and-roll recording. Adobe Audition has strong noise reduction and a subscription. GarageBand comes free with a Mac and records well, but has no meter for ACX's RMS window. All four record and edit well; in all four, finding every retake and mastering every chapter is still your job.
Instant ACX Ready: a studio that edits while you read
Instant ACX Ready runs in your browser and does the editing as you narrate. A teleprompter follows your voice and lights the line you are reading. The space bar is a retake: the app steps back a sentence and the stumble never reaches the finished file. The microphone is cleaned and levelled as it arrives, so the meters under the teleprompter show ACX's numbers live. After each take a careful second listen writes down what you said and compares it with the manuscript, so misreads, skipped words and lines read twice are marked for you.
| A usual audio editor | Instant ACX Ready | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you read from | paper or another window | a teleprompter that follows your voice |
| A stumble | found and cut by hand later | one key; cut out for you |
| Misreads and skipped words | found by listening back | marked against the manuscript |
| ACX's numbers | a plugin, file by file | live while you read, and measured on every MP3 |
| Chapters | split and exported by hand | one MP3 per chapter from the manuscript |
What you need
A computer with Chrome, Edge or Safari, a USB or XLR microphone (not a Bluetooth headset), wired headphones, a quiet room, and a licence key. Your books and recordings stay in your own studio, opened only by your key, and your finished MP3s are in Your files to download.