Silence inserted at start of file

Windows 7, Audacity 2.0.5, installed from the .exe

I’m editing a sound effect MP3 that needs to play with no delay. But when I export it Audacity seems to insert .05 secs of silence at the front. That doesn’t seem like much, but the sound is just a brief click, so the delay is noticeable. I edit the silence out and re-export, and when I reload the file it’s there again. I’ve looked through all the settings, but I don’t see anything that seems related. How do I get the sound to start really, really close to the start of the file? Is this simply an MP3 standard that I can’t override? Thanks.

The MP3 format always has silence padding at the start. It is not an Audacity bug. Use WAV if you are trying to create a file to use as a loop.

If so, try selecting the audio excluding the leading silence, do Edit > Find Zero Crossings, then File > Export Selection… as WAV. Import the WAV into Audacity and loop that.

See: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Looping .


Gale