getting quality mp3's

[jack_magee]

Win 7 64 bit - Audacity 2.1.1

I have several mp3 I need to edit and cut pieces out of and paste in to others. Maybe I need to make one mp3 from three mp3’s for example. It is narration not songs.

I understand every time I export the mp3 are being re encoded. is that right. i do not see any deterioration really. It is not hi fi music it just needs to be heard clearly. Still i want quality as much as possible. What i do is play mp3 number one with vlc and record with audacity.Then record number two and paste it in afetr removing the piece i do not want from number one. I do not export until all the pieces are joined correctly. Is it only on exportthe re encode happens. is this the best way to do it?

[steve]

Rather than recording the MP3s, Import them directly into Audacity (“File menu > Import > Audio”).

@jack magee

I understand every time I export the mp3 are being re encoded. is that right.

Yes.

To minimise the loss of sound quality, use a high bit-rate when you export.
Note that to export as MP3 you need to have LAME installed (see: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#lame)

[jack_magee]

Thanks Steve I have Lame

Import them directly into Audacity (“File menu > Import > Audio”)

will they be on different tracks then? Because they will all play together then. Edit - Ok I see i can move them with the time shift tool

[Trebor]

@jack magee

Thanks Steve I have Lame

Import them directly into Audacity (“File menu > Import > Audio”)

will they be on different tracks then? Because they will all play together then

You can also drag-and-drop the mp3’s into Audacity. As with using import, they will be on separate tracks.
Then you can use Audacity’s time-shift tool to arrange the tracks …

[jack_magee]

To minimise the loss of sound quality, use a high bit-rate when you export.

it is at 128 constant. Is that good. How high should i go and should it be constand for best quality?

[Trebor]

@jack magee

… it is at 128 constant. Is that good. How high should i go and should it be constand for best quality?

I use constant 256kbps for MP3 , ( because a can’t hear the difference using maximum “insane” 320kbps, which produces bigger files than 256kbps ).

If you make an MP3 of an MP3 , both having 128kbps , the result sounds more like 64kbps due to generation loss.

[jack_magee]

@Trebor

@jack magee

… it is at 128 constant. Is that good. How high should i go and should it be constand for best quality?

I use constant 256kbps for MP3 , ( because a can’t hear the difference using maximum “insane” 320kbps, which produces bigger files than 256kbps ).

If you make an MP3 of an MP3 , both having 128kbps , the result sounds more like 64kbps due to generation loss.

Thanks

[kozikowski]

Note no matter what you do with the exported MP3, the quality is still going to go down. Even if you select 256 quality as export, the 128 quality isn’t going to be 128. It will be some quality less, like 96. The final will be 128 quality if you export as WAV (Microsoft). Or it will be 128 if you started with WAV (Microsoft) and exported to MP3. It’s the MP3 to MP3 process that always loses quality.

Which is why we say, constantly, never do production in MP3.

There’s a producer that makes a music review radio show for broadcast by using downloaded MP3 clips. They do more or less OK all through the production, editing and broadcast process. It’s when the station tries to make a compressed podcast (another compression step) that the music quality goes straight into the toilet/loo.

He posted about the best way to avoid that.

Don’t do production in MP3.

If you have work that only involves cutting, pasting and moving stuff around (but no effects), then you’re far further ahead using a pure MP3 editor which doesn’t need to make a new MP3 and add sound damage.

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/MP3#re-encode

Koz