Until now I always had the Sample Rate set at 44100 Hz and the Sample Format at 16 Bit. This was because I was always burning to CD-R.
But recently I purchased an A/V receiver which can play high resolution FLAC files via USB Flash Drive. So I would like to maintain whatever the Rate and Format of the input file (for example, 24 bit and 96K Hz).
Do I have to change the preferences each time I import a file in so that what comes in goes out or is there some kind of automatic setting which will save the file in whatever format the input file is?
Note that I usually only do simple editing and rarely use the effect menu.
The sample rate will default to whatever you open/import. If you open a 96kHz file, you should see that in the Project Rate box in the lower-left corner. But, you’ll have to choose the bit-depth when you export.
There is one caveat to that, in that only the first file imported into an empty project changes the project rate.
So if you already have audio in the project at some other rate than 96000 Hz, importing the 96000 Hz file won’t change the project rate to 96000 Hz. You would have to change project rate manually.
FLAC 24-bit is set by choosing the Options… button when you choose FLAC at export time. Once set to 24-bit, it will stay set to that.
Ensure that you do that in the right place. The export format is not tied to the track format.
For exporting 24 bit FLAC files, select FLAC as the file type in the Export dialog (Audacity Manual), then click the “Options” button. Select “24 bit” in the FLAC options.
Note that 24 bit FLAC files are MUCH bigger than 16 bit FLAC files, but they will sound virtually identical.