Sound Problems

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hello everyone,

I just updated my old M-Audio Mobile Pre-USB preamp/audio interface. I think I got everything working OK. There is still much for me to learn.

However, after recording using a microphone is when problems develop. What I am attempting to do is save my recording. Of course I can save my recording as a new file. The choices of how I want the file saved seem limiting, but someone please explain them better to me.

What I want to do is the following:

-save as an MP3 file
-Properties should be: MONO, 16 bit, 44,100 HZ

Format should be:
-Constant Bit Rate of 192 kpbs, 44,100 HZ MONO!
-save at the Highest Quality (slowest)

Thank you in advance for any help you may provide.

2

Audacity does not “Save” audio files - the “Save” function saves an “Audacity Project” which is NOT and ordinary audio file.
To create an ordinary audio file, use “File menu > Export”.
See here for the Export options: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/file_export_dialog.html

3

I feel I have done everything correctly. I really need some expert technical support. I have no idea how to eliminate the “muddy” sounding uploaded mp3’s that Voice123 gets. Is there someone I can contact who can give me direct help? I really need some personal interaction. It would be well worth the effort to assist me with this problem. Thank you very much.

4

Audacity is free, so we don’t have the resources to provide one-to-one telephone or e-mail support.
Audacity is supported by “the community” (other Audacity users) via this forum, and through the comprehensive documentation (manual and wiki).

Does it sound OK when you play the Audacity project?
If you export from Audacity as a WAV file, then play it in your usual media player, does it sound muddy or does it sound OK?
Were you able to find the setting to make the MP3 192 kpbs?

5

It sounds fine when I play the project.

It also sounds fine when I play it as a WAV file on Windows Media player or Itunes.

Yes I was able to change to 192 kpbs. Still, the choices I have are for a stereo mp3, and I want a mono mp3. I can not seem to find that choice.

So it is only “muddy” sounding when played on Voice123.

6

Public posting services used to destroy uploaded shows because they didn’t have efficient compressors and they did have limited space to publish the shows. Most services do much better now, but if you are using a service that insists on recompressing the work, anything you put on-line is going to sound like that.

Try to upload a short WAV file instead of MP3. Compressors do terrible things to already compressed sound. Double compression is not pretty.

Koz

7

If the audio in Audacity is mono, then the exported MP3 will be mono - there is no need to set it manually.

I have just downloaded a track from their site:

Audio
Format                           : MPEG Audio
Format version                   : Version 1
Format profile                   : Layer 3
Duration                         : 1mn 39s
Bit rate mode                    : Constant
Bit rate                         : 96.0 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 1 channel
Sampling rate                    : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode                 : Lossy
Stream size                      : 1.14 MiB (100%)
Writing library                  : LAME3.96r
Encoding settings                : -m m -V 4 -q 2 -lowpass 20.5 -b 96

I notice that the bit rate is 96.0 kbps CBR.
Do they actually specify that the upload must be 192 kbps?
96 kbps mono MP3 should sound pretty clear (and the demo that I downloaded did sound pretty good).
If they are re-converting your uploaded file, that will reduce the quality.

8

64 is the minimum for stereo. Many people can tell there’s something wrong and if you do much lower, everybody can tell there’s something wrong. It falls apart pretty quickly. Minimum for mono is 32, so a good, clear, healthy mono at 96 should sound petty good – assuming you started out with a perfect track. Upload in the highest possible quality.

Koz

9

In other words, record in mono, choosing this in the right-hand box in Device Toolbar.

If you need to include tracks such as background music files that are already stereo, select the track (click where it says “Stereo” to left of the blue waves) and choose Tracks > Stereo Track to Mono from the menu at the top. This will make a mono track. If you then record a mono voice track, the two tracks will still be mixed to mono as long as you leave the L…R pan sliders in each track at centre position.

Exporting from mono will make the same file size as a stereo MP3 would at the same bit rate, but it should sound rather better than stereo would. This is because the available “bits” (as determined by the bit rate) have less work to do in a mono export than a stereo export.

According to http://support.voice123.com/article/Converting_MP3s_and_CDA_Files.html they strictly require 96 kbps files. I suggest therefore you export from Audacity at 96 kbps. If you are uploading a 192 kbps file and they are re-encoding it to 96 kbps this double lossy encoding would completely explain the poor sounding result.


Gale