Audacity Forum

Hi.

I'm a newbie to Audacity, and have taken an .mp3 file, edited it down a bit, and then exported it back out as an .mp3 file. (I seem to have successfully installed the LAME file.)

But, when I listen to the exported .mp3 file, it's at very high (chipmunk-like) speed.

I've gone back to the original file, and tried to changing the speed in the Effect menu, as well as changing the project rate, and then re-exporting the file, but it still sounds the same. What am I missing?

thanks,

Seth

Can we take this step-by-step:

You import the mp3 into Audacity - does it play correctly?
edited it down a bit - does it play correctly?

then exported it back out as an .mp3 file.... But, when I listen to the exported .mp3 file - how are you listening to it? What program? If you import it back into Audacity does it play correctly?

Steve,

Thanks for prompting the step-by-step...

I'm starting with an .mp3 file that plays properly in Windows Media Player, Real and elsewhere.

I bring it into Audacity, and it seems to play fine.

I edit it, and it seems to continue to play fine within Audacity.

I've exported it to a WAV file (before I figured out the LAME thing), and the wav file seemed to play fine in [I don't recall].

I've exported it to a MP3 file, and when I try to play the MP3 file via Real (and WMP?) it sounds like chipmonks.

I brought the file back into Audacity, and it still seemed to play fine. While in Audacity, I tried modifing the speed (Effect/Change Speed), as well as (separately) changing the Project Rate (which I picked up from another Forum comment). In all these combinations, the file sounds fine within Audacity, but continues to sound like chipmonks when I export it to MP3 and play it on an external player.

I'm running Windows XP.

What else can I tell you?

Thanks very much for your attention. I really would like to make Audacity work and use it a lot.

Seth

SethH wrote:I brought the file back into Audacity, and it still seemed to play fine.

The file probably is fine. There are many different flavours of MP3. Diferent compression settings, mono, stereo, VBR, CBR, ABR. Not all players can play all types of MP3 correctly.

If you are having problems with the Audacity/Lame mp3 encoder, I would suggest that you use a standalone encoder.
I use LameDrop, which is free, easy to use, and high quality. It will also do "batch conversions" which can be handy.

I do not recommend RealPlayer or Windows Media Player for audio files. Both of them are stuffed full of things that have nothing to do with playing audio files and have dubious reputations for spying on computer activity. I would highly recommend Foobar2000. It is free, lightweight, and plays just about every audio format that exists (apart from RealAudio).