Whether you're a podcaster, an educator, or simply someone that sends funny audio clips to your friends, audio editors can be useful. Most sound professionals gravitate towards a handful of audio editors. Audacity, Adobe Audition, and Avid Tools Pro being good examples.

However, what if you need to edit audio clips but can't install any software? Perhaps because you're working on a Chromebook. We've talked about great audio recording apps for Chromebook, but we've never talked about online audio recorders. Until now.

With that in mind, here are the best free online audio editors.

1. Beautiful Audio Editor

Audio Editor Comprehensive Desktop Replacement

In terms of functionality, Beautiful Audio Editor belies its status. It lets you import over a dozen audio file types and allows you to save your files to Google Drive. This software works straight within Chrome or Firefox, and can handle nearly an hour of audio time.

If you're used to Audacity, its interface should be immediately familiar to you. There are toolbars with toggles and export options at the top, while the bulk of the screen contains your tracks. It supports multi-track editing and allows you to adjust the levels of each track.

In addition to the basics of moving, duplicating, splitting, and speeding up clips of audio, Beautiful Audio Editor has a host of effects that you can use. These include gain, pan, dynamic compression, reverb, and applying a low or high pass filter to your audio. You can also record straight from the interface.

Another useful feature that many similar applications don't have is the option to create audio envelopes. This allows you to adjust the volume levels of tracks at various points in time. You can move from complete silence to as loud as 6 decibels higher than the actual audio level. This lets you create smooth fade-ins and fade-outs across your tracks.

Notable Features:

  • Handle multiple tracks
  • Mute, solo, and adjust the levels of individual tracks
  • Apply over a dozen audio effects
  • Speed up or slow down audio
  • Create audio envelopes

2. Sodaphonic

Audio Editor Quick Simple Edits

While Beautiful Audio Editor is a comprehensive piece of software, sometimes all you need is a simple edit to a cut out a part of the song. Sodaphonic keeps things quick and easy to use.

After importing an MP3 or OGG file, you can immediately trim, cut, paste, and delete parts of your audio. You can also apply a fade-in or fade-out, silence parts of your track, or reverse an audio file. It supports opening files from your Dropbox account and recording audio directly.

While it won't replace a dedicated audio editor, Sodaphonic runs extremely quickly and has enough features to be a worthwhile option. It'll come in handy for the next time you want to trim down an audio memo or apply a quick fade out to your track.

Notable Features:

  • Trim, delete, cut, copy, and paste audio clips
  • Import files from Dropbox
  • Apply fade-ins and fade-outs
  • Audio recording
  • Save files as MP3 or WAV

3. Bear Audio Tool

Audio Editor Import Options

Bear Audio Tool is an HTML5-based editor that can edit files directly from your local storage. This means that you don't actually have to upload any files to their server to edit audio.

Bear Audio fulfills all the basics of an audio editor. You can trim, cut, and rearrange clips, as well as apply effects such as pitch, mute, or fade. However, where Bear Audio Tool really shines is its wide range of import options. This is very useful if you have to pull audio from a lot of different places.

In addition to adding your own audio files, you can record audio, import from a direct URL, or directly add the audio from a YouTube video. Bear Audio Tool also has its own library of music and sound effects that you can use for your projects. These audio files are copyright-free and are compiled from various sources.

Notable Features:

  • Online and offline import options
  • Built-in audio library
  • Undo and redo functions
  • Youtube audio import
  • Format conversion

4. Hya-Wave

Audio Editor Web Samples

Unlike the other tools on this list, Hya-Wave is specifically designed to edit audio samples. The interface is minimalist and intuitive, with your standard cut, trim, and paste functions and a set of straightforward keyboard shortcuts. You can import audio files either by adding them locally or recording them from your browser.

Hya-Wave's strength lies with the ease of applying, removing, and customizing audio filters. It boasts 18 filters, including feedback delay, normalization, and an array of audio pass filters.

When you select an effect, a gauge appears at the bottom that allows you to customize it and apply it to various sections of the track. Before you apply a filter, you can pre-listen to the selection and adjust your settings accordingly.

Notable Features:

  • Library of 18 filters and effects
  • Pre-listen prior to applying a filter
  • Customization per audio filter
  • Publishing directly via URL and social media
  • Minimalist design

5. TwistedWave Online

Audio Editor VST Effects Online

TwistedWave Online is probably the most widely known software on this list. It's the online version of a fairly popular paid Mac and iOS audio editing tool.

Even though it's free, the online version doesn't skimp on the features found in the desktop edition. This includes a host of VST effects, as well as its core effects, which include amplify, normalize, pitch, speed, and sampling rate conversion.

TwistedWave Online also supports recording uncompressed audio or compressing it to MP3. After you finish editing your file, you can download them or directly export the files to SoundCloud or Google Drive. Your projects are automatically saved to the cloud and can be accessed from anywhere.

The web version of TwistedWave is free to use. However, take note that the free edition only supports audio clips of up to five minutes and imports all your files in mono. To remove these limits, you'll have to pay for a subscription.

Notable Features:

  • VST effects library
  • Uncompressed audio recording
  • Cloud storage for editing projects
  • Export to SoundCloud and Google Drive
  • Convert sampling rate

Start Editing Audio From Anywhere

These tools aren't the only online audio editors around, but they're a pretty strong set in terms of functionality and ease of use. While none of them can fully replace a desktop application, these free audio editors will prove very useful the next time you need to edit an audio file and you're not on your own desktop device.

However, if you have the ability to install software, Audacity is a great option. Here are some tips to edit audio using Audacity. And if you're looking for something other than Audacity, we've previously listed some of the best Audacity alternatives.