audio slows down when imported or pasted into new track

[gorilla]

A few times when I've imported files (usually mp3), they've played too slow. At other times, the sound has slowed down or sped up when I have cut a section of music and pasted it in a new track.

By way of experimenting, I tried changing an mp3 to a wav but the problem still happened. One imported track was so slow I sped it up 250% to get it to normal speed, but it lost a lot of quality.

Do "bit rates" have anything to do with this?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[steve]

Which version of Audacity are you using?
In Audacity 1.2.x the pasted sample will be played at the sample rate of the track that it is pasted into, so if the sample rate of the audio clip is different to the sample rate of the track, then it will play at the wrong speed. This does not happen in Audacity 1.3.x so I find your question a little puzzling.

It is extremely rare that there is a need to paste files into different tracks. Usually you can just keep each audio clip in its own track and this avoids such problems.

[gorilla]

Hi and thanks for your help. I checked, and it looks like I have 1.2.6. - I'll get the newer version and see if the problem stops.

Sorry for posting this question in the wrong section. I assumed I had 1.3 because I downloaded it in late December last year, and I thought I read somewhere that 1.2 was older than that.

As for why I like to cut & paste etc, I use Audacity to make amateur "music mashups", and it's handy to be able to import different tracks, and cut up bits of music and paste them into new channels, and change the tempo and "time shift" them.

Thanks again!