Audacity Forum

Okay then. Thank you all for your assistance.

DVDDoug

Thanks for the extra detail. Even though it's off topic, out of curiosity, what is this video editor that you mention?

Okay then let me get it straight.

Importing a file with a lossy codec does not affect the quality of the soundtrack or the original file.
Exporting to file with a lossy codec will affect the quality.

With your first statement, I'm still not certain that the import part is true, because the Audacity Wiki has a quote that says "If you import an MP3 into Audacity, edit it then export it as an MP3, you are thus losing quality twice - once in the original MP3 encoding of the imported audio, then agai...

Just a few questions...

I've read that when you import an MP3 file into Audacity, there will be quality loss in reencoding. However, does that affect the original file, or the soundtrack in the project?

Also, when an AAC or M4A file is imported, does any quality loss occur?