Audacity Forum

Hi there, I've been a Audacity user for quite some time, I recently did a reformat, after reinstalling Audacity I quickly noticed that say a 3min song will load up and only show it as 1min long, obviously it plays the song too fast but it doesn't sound like chipmunks rather than listening to a song being fast forwarded.. I have tried to uninstall/reinstall, I also recently went from onboard sound (SoundMAX audio) to a Creative Audigy SE and thought that might be the problem so I went back to the onboard sound with no fix.. the files I am loading are mp3 for sure, I tried loading a WMA but I'm sure you guys know that it wont.. um I have also tried changing the rate and it will extend the song but to where it plays too slow.. I have looked and looked for a fix.. and cant find anything.. if this problem was already covered I apologize because I could not find it.. and the only reason that I took the time to register and post is that I love this program and want to get back to using it.. thx for you time. Red

Does this happen with all mp3's, or is just a specific file that you have this problem with?
How about WAV files, do they play OK?

no all mp3's .. I dont have any WAV files that I know of..

EDIT* I will dl a mp3 to wav converter and try tho..

Ok some new news.. I tried a mp3 to wav converter and I couldn't even get those to play in Media player at any rate, at every rate I tried it would sound like the song is being fast forwarded, the same way Audacity is loading mp3's? Also I had forgot to delete the drivers from the Creative card.. I did that and still no fix And lastly one thing that I noticed was the bit rate of my songs.. seemed while downloading.. I cant remember ever seeing a different rate than 128 however my songs range from 98 to other weird ( to me anyway ) rates such as 130, 162, 194, 285, 352, 498, 528, 727, and a few other strange numbers is this normal or could this be a part of the problem... also wondering if somehow the registry entries from Audacity could be corrupted somehow and if so how to get rid of them and try a re install... once again thank you guys for your time.

also some specs:

XP sp3, SoundMAX onboard sound, updated drivers, any idea's at all here guys would be appreciated I'll try anything as I do not want to go to another audio editor...

EDIT* getting ready to uninstall/re install soundMAX to see if that might help.. will post back asap..

Here is a short MP3 that is known to be good for you to try: http://easyspacepro.com/audacity/examples/piano.mp3
And a short WAV file: http://easyspacepro.com/audacity/examples/piano.wav

ummm ok.. so both of those files load and sound fine... so now what? Is it the crazy bit rates that is screwing everything up?

The mp3 that you tried there was a 128kbps CBR (Constant Bit Rate) MP3.
Let's see af a Variable Bit Rate (VBR) MP3 works. Try this file: http://easyspacepro.com/audacity/examples/piano_VBR.mp3

yes it works as well.. I dont get it.. I have no problem with these files.. but any of my songs sound like a cassette tape on FF lol...

So how many of these MP3s that don't work properly do you have?
Perhaps you could upload the shortest of them onto the internet and post a link.
There must be something that is different about them.