How to post an audio sample

[steve]

When seeking help with sound quality issues it is often helpful to post a short audio sample that illustrates the problem. In most cases just 3 or 4 seconds of audio in WAV format is sufficient. Note that other formats such as MP3 may not be helpful (unless the question is specifically about MP3 exports) because MP3 encoding reduces the sound quality and may make it more difficult to hear what the cause of the problem is.

Below is a detailed guide to exporting a suitable selection in 5 easy steps.


1) Ensure that playback is stopped (and not paused).
If in doubt, click on the Stop button in Transport Toolbar:



2) If necessary, zoom in on the waveform so that you can see a few seconds of audio on screen.
There are four "zoom" buttons on Edit Toolbar:
Zoom In
Zoom Out
If you have audio selected, this zooms and scrolls so that the selection just fits in the window.
Zooms out just enough so that you can see the entire project.


3) Select a few seconds of the audio track.
If it's not already selected, choose Selection Tool from Tools Toolbar:

Now click the left mouse button inside the audio track, and click and drag to the other edge of your selection, and release.

If the selection snaps to whole seconds, this is because you have Snap To enabled in Selection Toolbar - normally this option should be set to "Off".

Try to select a region that illustrates the problem as clearly as possible, for example if you are wanting to illustrate the noise level in a recording, include a piece of loud sound (taller waves) as well as the noise on its own:

noise.png (11.41 KiB) Viewed 70300 times

The Forum can only accept shorter WAV file attachments, up to 12 seconds for stereo or 24 seconds for mono.


4) Export the selection in WAV format.

1. Click on the File menu.
2. Click on: [url=manual.audacityteam.org/man/file_menu.html#export_selection#Export]Export...[/url]
3. Then select Export Selected Audio...
4. In the export dialogue that pops up:
   
   
   • Choose your folder location. Ensure that it is a location that you can write to (such as your "Desktop" or your "Documents" folder).
   • Type the name of your audio file in the File name box. Use standard characters for the file name such as letters and numbers and avoid any special characters such as dots, slashes, symbols or punctuation marks. There is no need to add a file extension.
   • Ensure that "WAV (Microsoft) signed 16 bit PCM" is selected as the file type.
5. Check that your settings are correct and then click the SAVE button.
6. After pressing "Save" in the "Export File" dialog, the Metadata Editor will appear (unless you have disabled it). If the Metadata Editor appears, click the OK button.
   

5) Attach the file that you have exported to your Forum post.
Below the message composing box is an option to "Upload attachment". Files larger than 2 MB cannot be attached to posts. If your file is larger than 2 MB you can use a free file sharing service and post a link to the file. For example:
https://www.dropbox.com/
http://www.dropsend.com/
http://www.hightail.com (free trial)
http://www.mailbigfile.com/
http://www.sendspace.com

When on file sharing sites, avoid clicking on advertisements that have download or other buttons.

Please see https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopi ... 49&t=64936 if you require more information about adding attachments to posts.