How do I set the quality of the sound

[RabbiSinclair]

Hi
I'm trying to record a podcast and put music at the beginning and the end.
I'm getting a rather nasty gurgle sound on the voice when I mix down to MP3
for example:http://www.seasonsofthemoon.com/links.aspx (click on "how to perform a miracle"
How do I increase the quality of the recording rate so I get a decent sound after I've mixed it down.
BTW - I didn't have this problem with Audition -- but that's a lot more money
thanks

[kozikowski]

MP3 guggles and bubbles when the compression is too high.

In Audacity 1.2, you set the compression bitrate in Preferences. Be sure to restart Audacity after you change it. In Audacity 1.3, you set it at the export step which is probably where it should be.

There are fuzzy rules about bitrate. 32 is the minimum for a mono show. 64 for a stereo show, and nobody can hear any damage over 300, but those only work if you started out with uncompressed work/music/voice. If you double compress, the damage goes way up very rapidly, which is why we urge people not to do production in MP3. Save that for the end.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/WAV-MP3.wav

Koz

[RabbiSinclair]

thanks
couldn't find compression bit rate in preferences. Maybe there's a different name?
also where do I set the bitrate?
thanks

[steve]

couldn't find compression bit rate in preferences. Maybe there's a different name?
also where do I set the bitrate?

It depends which version of Audacity you are using. Look in "Help > About Audacity" to find the Audacity version number.