MP3 Export is garbled only on bluetooth devices

I listen to spoken word audio from our church meetings. Sometime in the last 3 or 4 months, I’ve noticed that the audio will not play when using my bluetooth headset through my phone, or PC.
I thought it was just me, but I found out from a friend, he is having the same problem. He isn’t using the same bluetooth headset I am, but we each have an iPhone.
This happens when I play the tracks through iTunes, or if I play them through Drive. It’s an incoherent garble. When I disconnect the bluetooth device, it plays fine over the iphone speakers. Did a change happen to mp3 export in the last few months? If anyone has a solution for this, It would be greatly appreciated.

So this could be stereo cancellation when the left and right channels exactly cancel each other out. Try splitting the stereo track to mono, see: Splitting and Joining Stereo Tracks - Audacity Manual, then delete one of the tracks before exporting.

Thank you Jademan! I did a test and that seemed to work fine. I’d like to do some more tests, and hear if it works for my friend as well, but this is great. Plus, that reduces the size of the files, so I’ll start doing splitting to mono and then deleting one of the tracks. It still plays through both speakers, so it makes sense.
I really apprecate the advice, and i’m hoping this solves the tricky problem!

Actually, you didn’t solve the problem. Most people don’t create stereo shows where the left and right channels right each other.

So somewhere in the church, there is an error.

One favorite way to lose this is to have the excellent house mixing and sound system plugged into a computer with the computer’s Line-In. Depending on how you did this, the computer may get Left channel completely perfect in every way, but the Right channel “upside down.” As long as you always listen in stereo, nobody will know, but the first time you listen mixed down to mono (Cellphone, Mono Earphone) the sound will get horribly garbled and low volume.

Complete side issue, there are people who can listen to that stereo show and tell instantly that there’s something wrong. The sound will be slightly “hollow” and coming “from behind you.”

You can do diagnostics with Audacity. Just tell Audacity to mix down to mono. That should give you a perfect, clear presentation. If it doesn’t…

Koz

I did a formal presentation about this.

Koz

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