Koz and Gale, thank you both! It is so reassuring to know that the audio problem is in fact a result of the MP3 export process and not caused by my mics or the audacity editing.
I re-exported the episode into MP3 using better quality export settings. Based on your comments as well as this post (https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/converting-exporting-from-audacity-to-mp3/43996/2) from Steve I went with the following:
- Constant Bit Rate
- Force Conversion to Mono
- 128 kbps (maybe it’s overkill but I’d rather err on the side of higher quality)
I kept the sample rate at 48000 Hz.
The audio quality is SO MUCH BETTER. Almost all the weird metallic sibilance is gone.
Now the only problem is that in the new MP3, you can hear more of a high background hiss. I checked the audacity file, and that hiss is indeed there pre-export. So, the lesser-quality export sounded bad but had the benefit of reducing background hiss. Now I just need to fine-tune the original audacity file some more to reduce the hiss, and re-export using the better-quality settings.
Again, thank you both very much!
Josh