Basic downgrade rate question - sound becomes stretched

[malik999]

I have a voice recording

Mono 44100Hz 16bit PCM

I need this as 8bit 11025Hz

As soon as i change the rate of the file the sound becomes distorted and stretced. How do you downgrade the rate etc without distortion?

[steve]

The technical term for what you want is "downsampling".

To get your audio as 8 bit 11025 HZ, do all the editing in whatever format you like (I'd recommend either 16 bit 44100 Hz or 16 bit 48000 Hz, then Export the finished audio as 8 bit 11025 Hz.

To set the bit depth, from the "Preferences" settings in the Edit menu, select the "File Formats" Tab
Set the "Uncompressed Export Format" to "Microsoft 8 bit PCM" and click "OK"

Now back to the main Audacity screen:
Bottom left corner you should see a "Project Rate" button.
Click on that button and select "11025"

When you "Export as WAV", from the File menu, your audio will be downsampled to 8 bit 11025 Hz.

You will notice that the sound quality of the exported audio is lower than before, so remember to change the "Uncompressed Export Format" back to a higher level (such as 16 bit) before trying to make any high quality recordings.