Unable to save modified mp3 without re-encoding it?

[dhinged]

I sped up a song and tried to save it, but it made me re-encode with lame and all that. However, the audio file is already modified the way it is, so why can't I just save it like that? Why does it require re-encoding it and all that? That seems like an unnecessary extra step that can diminish the sound quality (much like a 2nd-, 3rd-, 4th-generation etc encoding).

[Gale Andrews]

I sped up a song and tried to save it, but it made me re-encode with lame and all that. However, the audio file is already modified the way it is, so why can't I just save it like that? Why does it require re-encoding it and all that? That seems like an unnecessary extra step that can diminish the sound quality (much like a 2nd-, 3rd-, 4th-generation etc encoding).

Audacity does not edit MP3 (or any audio files) directly. If you edit a lossy file directly you are limited to making it quieter or softer and to cut, copy and paste. Speeding up audio requires decompressing to lossless PCM which then means you have to re-encode. See:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Lame_ ... tion#lossy .

If you want to add a vote for Audacity being able to edit MP3 files directly (with those limitations), please reply.



Gale