I decided to update Videopad today to the newest version, 10.84, and immediately upon adding videos to edit, the amount of audio noise in them was absolutely insane. Very loud, very static like noise, making the videos unusable. No amount of noise reduction in videopad or audacity helped much at all. The videos play in VLC with no noise at all, and I managed to find a link to Videopad 10.81 and loading the very same videos results in perfect playback, with no audio issues.
I have not been able to find a valid link for 10.82 or 10.83, so I am not sure when the change that killed my audio happened. But 10.81 still works, although at some point I would like to upgrade before my "upgrade period" expires.
Check this out, this is a screenshot from Audacity. The top file was "save audio clip as new file" in 10.81. The lower file was "save audio clip as new file" in 10.84. Same exact video.
https://i.imgur.com/02Odxv6.jpg