import format

Audacity 3 Help Forum macOS
1

A newbie-question?

How do i see what exact format I import.

I want to make a export in the same format as imported?

('been looking in the manual)

Thanks

2

Not with Audacity.
I don’t use Mac OS X, but for Windows and Linux you can right click on the file and view “properties”, or for more detailed information use a third party application such as MediaInfo, dBPowerAmp or QuickTime.

That is not always a good idea.
If the original format was a “lossy” format (such as MP3, AAC, WMA, Ogg …) then re-encoding to the same format will reduce the sound quality. Encoding in any “lossy format” discards some of the audio information which guarantees that there is some loss in sound quality. Re-encoding in the same format will discard additional information each time you re-encode, so like making a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy, the quality gets worse each time.

To retain the best quality, export in a “lossless” format such as WAV or FLAC.

3

It’s about the same for OSX.

Select file, right click, CTRL-click or command-i.

Select “more info” in the resulting information window. There you can find the sample rate of an mp3, f.i. And the bit-depth too.

4

… thanks, I’ll try the application mentioned to find in-depth info. I sometimes need a bit more info than “info” can give me.
I am replacing some audio files in an application so I need to put “same-spec’s” files back…

Thanks all…

5

Or bit rate, in the case of MP3.


Gale