MP3 imported file sounds garbled

[morvenwestfield]

I recorded a Skype interview using MX Skype Recorder, but I didn't realize that I had set up MX Skype Recorder to save the file as .MP3 instead of .WAV

I imported the interview into Audacity to edit it. The voice sounds a little warbly in Audacity, even though it sounds fine if you play the straight .MP3 file outside of Audacity.

I don't want to redo the interview because the poor interviewee had to do it over already because I didn't have MX Skype Recorder set up properly. I'm really new when it comes to sound processing and don't even know where to begin to try to clean it up.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Morven
http://podcast.morvenwestfield.com

[steve]

I don't notice any difference playing the mp3 in Audacity, or any other media player.
However, I suspect that your issue is that when you export from Audacity as an MP3 it sounds worse than the original MP3. Unfortunately this is inevitable, and as far as I know it can not be fixed after the event.

The problem is caused because the original MP3 will have suffered a certain amount of "damage" due to compressing as an MP3. Audacity always works on uncompressed audio, so it is decoded in Audacity, then encoded again when you export as MP3, suffering addition "damage". The losses each time you decode/encode are cumulative (added together, creating a greater degree of distortion and noise).

The only thing I can suggest is that you make sure that Skype is set up to record as WAV next time. The losses or damage caused by encoding once are usually small enough to not be a problem. It's also a good idea to keep a backup copy of your show in WAV format in case you want to do any further editing at a later date.

[morvenwestfield]

Sorry! It's one I'm working on now, not one on my site. I just pasted in that sig line without thinking. I haven't exported the file to MP3 yet, but yes, I'm thinking it will only get worse.

I did change my MX Skype Recorder settings to save as .WAV for the next time.