Hello, I made a recording the other day, I exported it as an mp3. When I opened the file in audacity later that day, I noticed that the top wave was blank and the bottom had sound waves, but the recording itself has a lot of static… Can someone please help me fix this.
Probably not. The damage that you describe sounds like it is fatal.
What went wrong? Did the recording sound OK while it was still in Audacity? If so, did you save the project?
No, this tme around I just went right to export as mp3; I’m kicking myself right now for not saving it as a project. I have a habit of looking at audacity when I record and from what I saw, everything looked normal, the sound waves looked normal and the top and bottom had them. For what ever reason, it didn’t save right.
I noticed that the top wave was blank and the bottom had sound waves,
If this was a mono recording (recorded with a computer microphone, etc.) you can convert it to a true mono recording with Tracks → Stereo Track To Mono. Then, you’ll have one mono channel and it will play through both speakers.
Then, run Effect → Amplify to bring the volume up.
As Steve said, there’s probably not much you can do about “static”. Even with the latest high-end software, pros still record in soundproof studios with really good equipment… There’s just no substitute for starting-out with a good recording.
I exported it as an mp3. When I opened the file in audacity later…
Just for future reference - MP3 is a lossy format. It’s not a terrible format, it’s NOT the cause of your static, and a high-quality (high-bitrate) MP3 can can often sound identical to the original. But, there is data-loss and potential quality loss.
So, it’s best to save in an uncompressed (or lossless) format if you plan on dong further editing.
When you open a compressed file for editing, it gets de-compressed. If you re-save in a lossy format you are going through a 2nd lossy compression step. If you want MP3, it’s best to compress ONCE as the last step.
When you do that Split Stereo Tracks to Mono thing, you might find that you have one good music track and a static-y dead track. Then you can celebrate.
One of the reasons we hate MP3 is you can’t easily do production with it. MP3 gets its small files by slightly damaging the audio, usually in ways most people have trouble hearing. But when you edit MP3 and make a new one, the damage doubles. People post to complain that their new show is bubbly and honky.
Yes. It is.
Koz