how to make audacity suck less?

I like to use audacity for small editing jobs (samples, etc.) and sometimes for audio conversion.

Back when I was on linux, there was a separate audacity-freeworld package that could edit / save as non-free codecs such as mp3.

Now I'm on Windows, I can't figure out how to make it sufficiently illegal. There's a small guide on the website for how to get LAME, but at the moment I'm working with some m4a files (terrible I know, but the only source I could find was a set of youtube videos).

Is there a place I can get a non-free version of audacity, or is there another simple/lightweight tool I should be using instead?

I don't know... you can easily get LAME somewhere.. I use more FL Studio's Edison, though.

I've never heard of that, I'll check it out.

I mean I've heard of FL Studio obviously, but I'm assuming you're talking about a separate application.

you could try goldwave out, they have a 4 months free thing right now http://forum.watmm.com/topic/78744-goldwave-turns-20-4-month-free-license/

it deals with just about any file type you need

That's the kind of tip I was hoping for! Thanks man.