Audacity Forum

I'm trying to mix some songs together that are at different bitrates. When I change the rate of the song in the pull down menu, it changes the speed of the song (doubling the rate makes the song twice as fast). I want to change the songs of higher rate to lower rate and preserve speed.

this tutorial: http://www.ehow.com/how_4561935_change- ... acity.html

says to change the export bitrate, you go file -> export, then hit the options button before saving. For me in the file menu I have export as mp3, export as ogg, etc. When I hit export as mp3, there's no option button and all I can do is save the file as is.

I'm very new to audacity but looking forward to using it for many projects! thanks guys

CrazyJugglerDrummer wrote:When I change the rate of the song in the pull down menu, it changes the speed of the song

That is supposed to happen.

CrazyJugglerDrummer wrote:to change the export bitrate, you go file -> export, then hit the options button before saving.

That's for Audacity 1.3.x
The Options button is not available in 1.2.x

The recommended version for Windows 7 is the latest 1.3.x version (currently 1.3.11)

I would strongly disagree that MP3 format is the "preferable" format. MP3 compression always looses some amount of sound quality, even at 320kbps. The "preferred" file format depends on what you intend to do with the audio after you have exported it. For burning to CD the best format is 16 bit 44100Hz WAV. For loading onto an MP3 player the best format is (obviously) MP3 - you then need to decide what degree of sound quality is acceptable - MP3 compression is a trade-off between size and quality - better quality requires bigger file size.

CrazyJugglerDrummer wrote:I'm trying to mix some songs together that are at different bitrates.

Audacity 1.3.11 can handle multiple sample rates without you needing to do anything. Note that when you import a file into an empty project, Audacity will automatically set the Project Rate to match the file that you have imported.
When you Export an audio file from Audacity, it will use the "Project Rate".
If you require a different sample rate, use the box in the lower left corner of the Audacity screen to set the Project Sample Rate.

For most work, 44100 is a good sample rate to use (it is the standard for audio CDs). If you are working with DVD video, 48000 is better as that is standard for DVDs.