I just downloaded Audacity. All I want to do (for now) is edit two .mp3 files so that one ends JUST as the next begins. How to do that?
Import the files, then use the “Time Shift” tool to drag one track to the right so that it starts where the other one ends, then Export to create a new audio file.
Note that each time you encode an MP3 file the sound quality deteriorates a little. It’s better to work with WAV files and if you require an MP3, Export as an MP3 as the final step. It’s also recommended to use Audacity 1.3.13 rather than the old 1.2.6 version.
Thank you! That was QUICK!!!
And now, the cold water. Audacity doesn’t actually edit MP3. It converts songs into its own high-quality format and edits that. The trick comes when you want to make another MP3. You get a second layer of MP3 compression damage and you can’t stop it.
It’s a very common complaint that “my songs don’t sound very good after I edit them.” What you can’t do is get the same size and quality sound file after as before. You can maintain very good quality by greatly increasing the bit rate during compression which will give a very much larger MP3 sound file. You can avoid MP3 altogether and stay in WAV or one of the other uncompressed sound formats.
If you have simple edits, cutting or simple volume control, you can use one of the native MP3 editors that don’t ever leave MP3 format. That does work, but you can’t change the actual show, no filters, processing, fading, etc.
Koz
This has nothing to do with recording equipment so I moved it to the Audio Processing forum.
To “link” both songs in a smoother way you can fade one out while you fade the other in. You can either use the Fade In/Fade Out effects or the envelope tool for this.
Whether this will sound better or not will depend on the tracks of course.