Export issues-- sound changes when exp as WAV or MP3

[deer of the dawn]

When I export my project it goes from sounding just the way I wanted to crappy. What's going on? Mp3 takes on a tinny sound with reverb added and WAV sounds bassy and overcompressed.

I have dbPoweramp for file conversion so I could try exporting as something else and converting to wav or mp3 later. Any advice?

[steve]

There was a quality problem with a recent version of Lame, so make sure that you are using the latest version of Audacity (1.3.9) and the latest version of Lame (3.98.2)
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... stallation

You can adjust the sound quality of the MP3 compression by clicking on "options" on the Export dialogue. The "Presets" give a selection of optimal settings for music recordings. (the "Insane" preset should be virtually indistinguishable from the original).

Where possible, avoid using MP3 files as your source material. MP3 compression damage is cumulative - the sound quality gets worse every time you re-encode and there is no way to repair that damage. Use WAV files as the source when you can. MP3 format should be reserved for the final delivery format if you need small files.