Exporting to MP3 options?

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
1

I am running Audacity 2.1.3 under windows 10 OS…
I am having no problems with the program…but my question is
what is the best settings to use when exporting to MP3, what does each option mean?
When exporting currently I’ve been using the following options…
BitRate=Preset, Quality=Insane 320, Variable speed=Fast, Channel mode=Joint Stereo
Are these the best settings to use for the best sound and quality?
Thanks

2

Are these the best settings to use for the best sound and quality?

The best settings for sound and quality is stop using MP3. File > Export: WAV (Microsoft).

MP3 can be a time bomb. Most export quality settings north of 128 will sound perfect. The problem comes if someone wants to edit them and create a new MP3. If you make a new 128, the actual sound quality can be as low as 64. 64 quality MP3 is the lower limit for stereo music in MP3.

You can edit WAV files as much as you want at the same high quality.

So. Export your work as WAV and that’s your archive. Make an MP3 for your personal music player, but do it from the WAV, not another MP3.

Koz

3

BitRate=Preset, Quality=Insane 320, Variable speed=Fast, Channel mode=Joint Stereo
Are these the best settings to use for the best sound and quality?

I think so, except I’m not sure about ‘speed=fast’. I believe that’s the encoding speed where faster may not be as good.

kbps is the “best” constant bitrate for MP3 it creates the largest files.
is the “best” variable bitrate setting and doesn’t “waste bits” with silence or simple sounds that don’t need the highest bitrate).

Joint Stereo is almost always best (unless you have a mono original).

However… If 192kbps sounds identical to the original (which it does sometimes*) can’t say 320kbps is “better”… It’s all loss compression and all of the samples will be changed to some extent. And sometimes 320kbps doesn’t sound identical to the original, but it doesn’t sound any better than a somewhat lower bitrate.

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  • It depends on the program material (some sounds are easier to compress than others) and your ability to hear compression artifacts.