Since installing windows 8.1 the exported file [mp3], after editing, has an echo.
Turn off all sound effects and enhancements in Windows and your sound card.
If you were recording something and it recorded like that, check the recording enhancements too.
See http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_recording_troubleshooting.html#enhancements .
Gale
Windows likes to record like you were using Skype and play back like you were in a theater. The default settings have been hostile to plain, ordinary recording for several versions now.
Koz
I have been editing these recorded sermons for years with Audacity and they sound fine while editing and playing before editing. Just in the past month the exported version has an echo. Coinciding with the installation of windows 8.1 .
If the tracks sound OK immediately before you export them, you’ll need to turn off the sound effects in the player program you are using.
If you export as WAV and the problem goes away then it’s a problem with MP3 which is lossy. Come back to us if WAV export is OK and MP3 not.
Gale
Thanks, Gale. The wav export is ok. It’s the mp3 export that has the echo [even when I re-enter into Audacity. What can I do from here?
Press the “Options…” button when you export and try a higher bit rate. This makes the file larger.
If you recorded a stereo track and don’t need it to be stereo, try Tracks > Stereo Track to Mono. This will increase the effective bit rate without making the file larger.
Are you mixing together mono tracks into a stereo MP3? That can give “phasey” audible artefacts. If you must do that, try exporting as WAV then convert to MP3.
Are you using the recommended LAME from http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#lame ?
Gale
I am using LAME v3.99.3. I already change the track to mono before editing and exporting. If I export at 128 kbps instead of 16 kbps the echo is gone, however the file is too big to email etc. I don’t understand why it started acting this way when I don’t think anything else has changed, and the recorder the pastor uses is the same… As I said, I have been doing this for years for the church.
Then you could upload it to a web site and give your congregation the link to the file.
I can’t see your computer or what edits you are doing so I don’t have many other suggestions to make, other than try a bit rate between 16 kbps and 128 kbps.
If you must use 16 kbps and you are using the maximum project rate for that bit rate (24000 Hz), try a lower project rate.
If you are still stuck, please attach an example short MP3 file that demonstrates the problem (up to 1 MB in size). Please see here for how to attach files: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-attach-files-to-forum-posts/24026/1 .
Gale
Thanks, Gale. I will try to find a happy medium that will have quality and work with the website. Thanks for all you do. Audacity has been a blessing to our church and the people confined to their residence. CB
Here is a short excerpt for your inspection. tx CB
To begin with, Tracks > Stereo Track to Mono. The audio is identical in both left and right, so you are just degrading the quality by trying to export as stereo. It will sound the same in mono as in stereo.
Second, the file already has a “Software.Lavf54.2.100” ID3 tag so it seems FFmpeg had already encoded that file before you imported it into Audacity. The LAME encoder is “LAMEÿó dì” so that isn’t LAME 3.99.3 from http://lame1.buanzo.com.ar/ (or the previous encoder left its signature in there).
So if you are editing someone else’s file of a recording instead of editing a recording you made yourself, get them to send you a WAV, not an MP3. If you encode an MP3 as another MP3 you’ve got double loss of quality.
Gale
I receive it as a wma. I use ConverterLite to make it a wav so Audacity will accept it. [It was accepting WMA’s for a while, but does not anymore]. I reinstalled audacity & Lame 3.99.3. Maybe that will help.
Windows Media (WMA) changes their processes over time and we all have to run out buy new conversion software to keep up. Neither the Audacity program nor the Lame MP3 software are going to help. You may need “ConverterHeavy.”
Koz
If you were really using the recommended Audacity MP3 encoder then I would guess that recording was an MP3 and then converted to WMA (two lossy encodings to begin with).
Get them to send you a WAV or a FLAC (which will be half the size of WAV) if they expect you to re-encode as 16 kbps MP3 without it sounding as if the service was at the bottom of the Atlantic.
No, reinstalling will not help.
If you install FFmpeg ( http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#ffdown ) then Audacity can import WMA. If they must send you WMA tell them to set it to maximum quality. Have they got a new recorder that does not record in WAV?
Gale