need to mix 2 tracks together??!

[ripleyhypno]

Hi

im a newbie and ive recorded a narration track converted it to mp3 and need this and a background track mixing together to make a recording. Do i just click join and then save as i ve tried that but then i cant export the track to convert it to mp3 or am i doing something wrong?

if you can point any useful links out to me id be grateful or tell me how to do it- its driving me mad, i ve looked for the answers myself but cant find them

thanks

Gaz

[Irish]

You don't have to do anything specific to get Audacity to mix tracks. It does it automatically.

Import your narration track and your background track into Audacity. They will appear one above the other.
Click "Play", and both tracks will play together. Adjust the volume of the background track to the correct level, using the slider on the left of the track. If you want to raise or lower the level of a particular part of the background track, you can use the Envelope tool (the blue line with white triangles above and below it).

When you're happy with the levels, click File > Export As WAV. Audacity will mix the two tracks into one WAV file.

One tip: you should be using WAV files rather than MP3 for all your editing, including your initial recording of the narration and the background track. MP3 files are made small by compressing the audio data, and some of the quality is lost each time you edit and export as mp3. WAV files keep the original audio quality no matter how often you edit tham.
Once you have a final WAV file, you can burn it to CD or convert it to mp3 to listen to on an iPod.

PO'L