Could someone help me understand why the exported MP3 file has a much higher and distorted volume (here in Brazil, we call this ‘clipped audio’) compared to the sound being played in the editor? I have attached the files for you to see the difference.
note 1: the volume of the exported file appears much louder than the editor’s maximum playback level (although I would like this level to be 81%)
note 2: I have already tried to export the file with the most varied settings possible
note 3: The same is happen by converting the file to others extensions
Note 4: I’m very discouraged from continuing to edit my own audios because of problems like this… any help will be of great importance
Is this a multi-track overdub session? Audacity adds up all the tracks it can see when it exports a sound file. If you did extensive production and mixing, the sum of the tracks can be very large.
Tracks > Mix > Mix and render to a new track.
Now select that new track and apply Effect > Amplify or whatever volume tools you want to bring that new track volume down.
Then select it and File > Export Audio > Export Current Selection.
Audacity uses special internal sound format of 32-floating because it doesn’t overload while you’re editing.
There are two sliders to the left of the waveform. One for volume/gain and one for left-right balance. Check that volume slider. It changes what you hear and it changes the exported file but it doesn’t show-up in the display.
…Note that MP3 is lossy compression. It changes the wave shape making some peaks higher and some lower. So the “new” highest-peaks are sometimes about 1dB higher than the uncompressed original.
MP3 can go over 0dB without clipping so it’s not necessarily clipped, but you’ll clip your DAC if you play it at “full digital volume”, and Audacity will “show red” for potential clipping.
I don’t worry about that when it’s caused by the MP3 compression because it’s lossy anyway, and I don’t think that slight clipping is audible, but some people normalize to about -1dB peaks before exporting to MP3.