How to improve YouTube video convertion?

Hello,

This is my first post on this forum and I have a specific question to ask.

I have a hobby where I find a YouTube video I like, then I download it (95% of the time it is a mp4 file), then I like to edit the audio from the video file to make my own stuff to put onto my iPod or upload on YouTube.

The typical process I’ve been doing is as follows: mp4 > mp3 > wav; edit wav file; wav > mp3 > upload or save as is.

This makes the audio quality very bad as we both know, so is there a more efficient way to edit mp3 files in Audacity without compromising quality? i’m no tech guru but I can try my best! Thank you.

Audacity with the FFMpeg software should open many M4A and movie files.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#ffdown
Koz

Wow, so much for the extra effort. This works fantastic, thanks!