I am new to Audacity and am in the process of digitising my LP collection. I have captured the music from my LPs using an ION USB Turntable. The files are saved in the MP3 format. The tracks are then cleaned of clicks and pops, I use the Normalise Effect to obtain a better sound. At this time this is as much as I feel confident trying and the results are as I would wish. The album is then recreated as a collection of MP3 files to be played from my PC music library. I have found that the new album stops at the end of certain tracks, particularly those that have had a lot of cleaning done to them in Audacity, and will not play the next track in the sequence. Any ideas what is happening and how do I solve the problem?
Please tell us your version of Audacity (all three numbers, see the pink panel at the top of the page).
If you export as MP3 and then clean up the MP3’s, you are needlessly destroying your audio quality that way, because MP3 is lossy.
Exporting an audio file as backup immediately after recording is good 
, but use WAV which is lossless.
In what player exactly are you playing those MP3’s? Does it have some effect to skip over or stop at silence?
What settings are you using for MP3 export in Audacity? Some players may have issues with variable bit rate MP3, which is the default in the current Audacity 2.1.2. If that is anything to do with it, export as Constant Bit Rate instead.
Gale
Thank you for your response.
I am using Audacity 2.1.2. The media database is Creative MediaSource 5.01.31. All previous capture and conversions have worked, using ION’s own software, but at a poor quality of sound with no clean up facility. I have updated Lame as recommended by your site but have always ripped at 320mbps at a variable rate and had no problems.
Can I take it that Audacity works better on WAV than MP3? This is not a problem, I have options to save captured music in a range of formats.
I have visited the extensive help sections and wondered if there are any tutorials which overview the whole process of capture, clean and save?
Once again thank you for your reply.
Paul
So are you using a Creative Portable MP3 player?
If you want to record using Ion’s software, save as WAV for import into Audacity. This is purely because when you export from Audacity as MP3 it always re-encodes the file, so you are getting two lossy conversions (in Ion’s software and then in Audacity) rather than only one (in Audacity).
We can only help you with Audacity software. Please see Tutorial - Copying tapes, LPs or MiniDiscs to CD and Sample workflow for LP digitization.
Gale
Thank you Gale
I have now spent time ‘moving over’ to Audacity and am re-recording the music. A lot to learn and the tutorials are a big help, a few own PC issues to resolve but I’m getting there, Input sound level too high Etc…
As you have realised the software is supplied with the Zen portable MP3 player, I use the library feature but not the mini MP3 player. I Have started a new project with a different vinyl album and following the procedures in the tutorials and see how this goes.
Thanks again
Paul