Reverse audio online and play it backwards

How to reverse audio, step by step

Reverse works on whole files and on selections, in mono or in stereo.

1. Click Open a file to reverse, or use File ▸ Open… (Ctrl+O), and choose your file. You can also drop it onto the page.
2. To reverse only part of it, drag across the waveform to select that part. With nothing selected, the whole file is reversed.
3. Choose Effects ▸ Reverse. There is no window to fill in: it is applied at once.
4. Press Space to listen. If you change your mind, Ctrl+Z undoes it, and reversing the same selection again also brings back the original.
5. Save the result with File ▸ Save As… as WAV, FLAC, MP3 or Ogg Vorbis, or only the selected part with File ▸ Save Selection…

Reverse is not Invert

The Effects menu has two items that sound alike but do very different things.

• Effects ▸ Reverse flips the audio in time: the end plays first and the start plays last. Words turn into gibberish, and a piano note swells up instead of fading away.
• Effects ▸ Invert flips the polarity: the waveform turns upside down and its peaks become dips. On its own it sounds exactly the same. It matters when two signals are mixed, for example two microphones on one drum that partly cancel each other; inverting one of them can bring back the missing low end.
• If you wanted a backwards sound and heard no change, you probably used Invert. Undo it with Ctrl+Z and choose Reverse.

Ideas for reversed sounds

Reversed audio is a classic production trick, and it takes seconds to try.

• Reverse cymbal: select one cymbal crash and reverse it to get a rising swell that leads into the next section.
• Reverse reverb: reverse a word or a note, apply Effects ▸ Delay Effects ▸ Reverb… with Include tail ticked, then reverse it again. The echo now swells up before the sound instead of after it.
• Backwards messages: reverse a phrase to hear what it sounds like, or reverse a passage of a song said to hide a backwards message and listen for yourself.
• Sound design: reversed footsteps, voices and impacts make good transitions and unsettling effects.
• Reversing several parts in a row? Select each one and press F2 to repeat the last command.

Reversing one channel, or audio in the multitrack

In a stereo file, Edit ▸ Edit Channel ▸ Left Channel or Right Channel limits the next edits to one side, so you can reverse one channel and leave the other as it was. Choose Both Channels again when you are done.

Effects are applied in the Edit view, so the Effects menu is not available in the Multitrack view. Open the file in the Edit view (F12 switches views), reverse it there and send it to the multitrack with Edit ▸ Insert in Multitrack (Ctrl+M).