Added time when exporting to MP3 (okay with .wav)

When I export my project to MP3 the file is not the same as the project file. I saved to wav to see if the problem persists and thankfully it does not.
I will save my wav as MP3 externally to audacity but would love to understand why this happens and how to work around it to export directly from audacity to MP3.

I did not (so far) this effect - but if .wav is exported okay I would stick to this and then use a (online or offline) converter to get the resulting .mp3.

Just for the record: if you use Windows, you can download the Windows version of iTunes for this. If you’re using a Mac, it is - depending on what macOS you use - iTunes or the newer Music.app. For Linux, I have no recommendation at the moment.

Just a few milliseconds, right?

A few milliseconds at the beginning and end is normal. MP3 is lossy compression (imperfect) and this is one of the side-effects. LAME FAQ

1 Like

This is what I use sometimes: SoundConverter