Importing audio

[DayOne]

I've just downloaded Audacity today, but when I import a file I get less than a second of what I presume is my original audio ... the Audacity file is too short to make any sense of. I've tried using 'import audio' and I've tried dragging and dropping ... both have the same outcome. I've been through the user manuals and everything else I can find, but can't get to the bottom of it. Can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong? (My original audio is around 14 minutes long). Please keep any answer simple ... I'm new to this. Thank you in the hope that someone may be able to help.

[kozikowski]

You tried to play a file that Audacity doesn't understand. Audacity will try to play the file without the compression keys, so if you have a 10 to 1 compressed sound file, Audacity will play the file ten times faster.

Audacity doesn't convert terribly well, so you need to convert the file in Super or Switch or even iTunes into something Audacity can use. WAV format is good.

You can also try Audacity 1.3. The later versions have pretty good acceptance of different compressed files.

You can install Audacity 1.2 and 1.3 on the same machine as long as you don't try to use them at the same time.

Koz

[DayOne]

Thanks so much. That worked.