volume boosted after exporting WAV?

[smakawhat]

Hi all, I have 3 wav files in an audacity project. One is the original song, the other 2 are separate guitar tracks I recorded using my mixer and put in with a Behringer UCA 202.

I play them and they sound fine. However I noticed when I exported them all out, the volume on them completely got boosted creating the big fat giant blue wave. I had to decrease the volumes in the original tracks and then export them.

Is there some way I can do this without having to turn the original volume tracks DOWN? I still got it to work out okay, but I figure what I hear and export should be the same.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[smakawhat]

Just for the record I am using Windows Vista

[steve]

When you have several tracks playing at the same time and you Export the "mix", all of the tracks get added together (the mix). This means that the Exported track will be the sum of all of the tracks that are playing, and thus will be higher amplitude than the individual tracks.

To prevent distortion, Use the track volume sliders to adjust the volume of each track. Start playback and check that the playback meter stays below 0dB (you can drag and stretch the meter toolbar to make it easier to see - I have it stretched full screen width).

You can also select all of the tracks then use "Quick Mix" to mix all the tracks down to a single track before you Export.