How to Handle a Bad Review

This is a video for Reaper, a popular DAW for podcasters, that calls out another popular DAW for podcasters, Audacity for a few things, one of them being lack of “non-destructive” editing.

Non-destructive editing is a method or process used in digital media production where the original content is not altered or degraded. It allows you to make changes to a photo, video, or audio file without permanently altering the original content. And this means, if you make a mistake or change your mind about an edit, you can easily undo any changes and go back to the edit (or non-edit) you had previously.

Non-destructive editing is nice to have, but as somebody who started editing by physically cutting magnetic tape with razor blades, arguably the most destructive form of audio editing, because there is no going back without literally taping pieces of tape back together, it’s not something I’ve ever relied on. Instead, I learned how to make editing decisions I could live with. 

I love Audacity. There’s something very empowering about free software that allows people to record and edit their messages for distribution around the world.

But every time I mention my love of Audacity, there’s always somebody who complains that it doesn’t have non-destructive editing.

At least that used to happen … Current versions of Audacity do have non-destructive editing.

But this video is old, so Audacity was “destructive” at the time … and that was mentioned in the video.

The people behind Audacity found out about it. And since they knew this was an issue for some people, this was their response:

A great reminder that you can have a little fun with bad reviews and other criticism you get, without coming off as defensive or aloof. And a great reminder that there is always an opportunity to make what you do better.