Okay, I have recently installed Audacity version 2.0.3 on my computer. My OS is Windows Vista.
I have just painstakingly edited an mp3 file so that it can infinitely loop. I download and installed LAME, I clicked Export, and after a bit of clicking, it exported as an Mp3.
The problem is, the file it exported is… well, weird!
All it is is a file. The computer just calls it “File.” It’s defintely an audio file, and Windows Media Player, VLC Media Player, and the Meridian Player I installed in my Andriod phone can play it, but they won’t recognize it beyond that (i.e. it doesn’t show up when you’re looking in their libraries). I can’t even change any properties with the file itself!
They can recognize the file info while playing and recognize the formant I converted it into, but not all the time.
This result is the same for all formats I’ve converted. MP3, WAV, OGG, all the same result. I tried putting and installing LAME right in my Audacity folder on the same disk, but that didn’t help. Maybe it’s because I still need to uninstall the copy I have in the other disk that doesn’t have Audacity in it, but I seriously doubt it. Audacity has always told me that LAME was in there and never told me there was a problem.
I tried messing around with the bit rate for the MP3 in the Options menu during the Selecting phase of Exporting. Didn’t help.
In conclusion, what I want is for the exported files to behave like their corresponding formats should.
P.S. I also have a interesting piece of info: When Audacity is exporting, the glowing progress bar doesn’t finish. When it gets to a point on the bar, (I’d say indicative of 90 or 95%) the entire thing just disappears.
Hmm, no I don’t th-Wait. Wait. I DID. I just changed it. IT WORKS! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
On another note, according to that link you sent me, Audacity should have warned me when I have a period in the file name. But you see, it didn’t. It just exported the file with no hassle. Shouldn’t that have happened?
It won’t warn if you were using File > Export Multiple because it just adds the expected extension to the end of the file name you write (including any dots). So if for example you wanted to export multiple MP3 files with .MPG extension, you can’t. You can do that with Export > File, but that also means that Audacity doesn’t add the extension itself if you add dots in those file names.
Please give us exact steps if you think what should happen isn’t happening.
Forbidden characters have been around for decades and you have to know it’s going to happen. It’s one of the pitfalls of creating content. Nobody but you knows what your filename is going to be. Trying to make the software second-guess you would be a nightmare, particularly since the problems are different between the different types of computer.
Audacity goes a long way to taking some of the sting out of “forbidden” characters, but there are still holes and you do have to pay attention. I believe MyMusic.mp3.wav is a perfectly valid filename in Windows. It’s one of the ways evil software makers try to sneak viruses past you.
You can only get away with looping an mp3 seamlessly if it starts and ends in silence, and there is a minimum of a twentieth of a second of silence at the end of the track. This is because exporting as mp3 adds a tiny bit of silence, (about a twentieth of a second), at the start of the mp3.
Save as WAV format to preserve your “painstakingly edited” can’t-spot-the-join loop.