I’ve been using Audacity for years and have never experienced this.
I was doing multi-track recording as usual when the playback sound suddenly changed dramatically. The level dropped and it became bass-heavy, with none of the high- and mid-range clarity I normally hear. I’ve tried everything including uninstalling the program and downloading another copy.
But what’s really strange to me is that when I export the multi-track project as an mp3, that plays wonderfully everywhere outside of Audacity. If I import it back in, it sounds just as bad as it did as an .aup file.
The Audacity project rate is 41000Hz, and all audio enhancements are off.
This failure occurred suddenly during a recording project. That leads me to believe that something within the program changed, as playback of the same audio in any situation outside of Audacity is perfectly fine. I can mix recorded tracks to the best of my ability with the deteriorated sound quality, export the project, and be blown away by how much better the end product sounds compared to what I had been working with.