MP3 Export Crash

[DouglasScott]

I am using 1.3.7 Beta. Exports in .wav are fine. Exports in MP3 are ugly, garbled, echoed. Now each MP3 export ends in an Audacity crash. Suggestions?

[DouglasScott]

Further info: XP on HP MediaCenter m390n--someone was bound to ask that.

[steve]

Someone is probably bound to ask why this is in the "Audacity 1.2.x stable" part of the forum... never mind, I'll move it quick and maybe no-one will notice

There have been 2 versions of Audacity 1.3.7 - unless you have downloaded it very recently (within the last couple of weeks, you should download it again as there were some bugs that got missed in the original 1.3.7 release.

Also, with Audacity 1.3.7 it is essential that you have exactly the correct version of Lame, or MP3 export will not work correctly. See here for details: http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=9175

[DouglasScott]

Whoops on that post placement!
This is today's version of 1.3.7 as I've downloaded and deleted and downloaded several times in an attempt to identify the source of the problem. I've also replaced every applicable driver. Thanks!

[steve]

Try closing Audacity, then deleting the audacity.cfg file - it's a hidden file in:
Documents and Settings<user name>Application DataAudacity

Then restart Audacity and go into the Import/Export section of Preferences (from the Edit menu) and manually tell Audacity where the correct LAME encoder dll is.

[DouglasScott]

Yes, stevethefiddle, the solution above solved the crashing problem--thank you very much! I can still hear a difference in quality between the wav and MP3 versions, and my ears are not so trained as to notice these things. The MP3 has a slight reverb to it as if the speaker has a cold. (Too technical? LOL)

[steve]

You can improve the quality of an MP3 at the expense of increased file size by choosing a less compressed format. I think the default is "128kbps CBR". If you change the setting (Options button in the Export dialogue) to "Preset > Standard" you will get much improved sound quality.


The best sound quality possible with MP3 is "Preset > Insane" (same as "320kbps CBR").
There is always a trade-off between file size and sound quality, but the presets provide some of the best settings. I think "Preset > Standard" is a good balance between quality and file size for reasonable quality music - 128kbps CBR is a bit poor.

[DouglasScott]

That was it! What an amazing difference! What's weird is that I never had that problem before. Was the default changed somewhere along the line to make this reset necessary? Oh, never mind; I'm just delighted it works again. This summer I'm teaching people how to use Audacity for the local community college continuing education program. I just had to have the bugs out of my copy before I could teach it. Thank you so much!

[ozboomer]

Try closing Audacity, then deleting the audacity.cfg file - it's a hidden file in:
Documents and Settings<user name>Application DataAudacity

Then restart Audacity and go into the Import/Export section of Preferences (from the Edit menu) and manually tell Audacity where the correct LAME encoder dll is.

Quite simply, that fix didn't work for my system, where I've installed 1.3.7 (Beta), downloaded today. Specifically, browsing to the "installer" directory containing the lame_enc.dll file and selecting it, came up as unknown/unrecognized in the "Options" window.

The short version is that the MP3 importing/exporting is unconfigurable/unreliable/unusable and, as someone has already said, the best approach would seem to be to export your project as a .wav file and externally convert it to MP3 format.

I've tried using the installer as suggested in this thread and that makes no difference (again, downloaded today). In every other case, I've placed the lame_enc.dll in the Audacity directory, to make things simpler.

I started by using my old v3.95-1 lame_enc.dll. When trying to export an MP3 file, and browsing to the lame_enc.dll file, Audacity immediately recognized it as v3.95 and rejected it, as being incompatible.

I tried using my current v3.97 lame_enc.dll (used on another system, running 1.2.4). This was recognized Ok (the version number was shown in the Options panel)... but when I tried to do an MP3 export, it completed the export but Audacity crashed.

Finally, I tried the v3.98-2 lame_enc.dll which is the latest version I could find. When browsing to this file and selecting it, Audacity simply didn't recognize it at all (which was also the case with the "installer" version from buanzo.com.ar as well). I've also tried various other builds of v3.98 and they all come up with the same issue.

Is this a recognized problem with the 1.3.7 release or is there just something crazy with a lot of installations?

[Gale Andrews]

Try closing Audacity, then deleting the audacity.cfg file - it's a hidden file in:
Documents and Settings<user name>Application DataAudacity

Then restart Audacity and go into the Import/Export section of Preferences (from the Edit menu) and manually tell Audacity where the correct LAME encoder dll is.

Quite simply, that fix didn't work for my system, where I've installed 1.3.7 (Beta), downloaded today. Specifically, browsing to the "installer" directory containing the lame_enc.dll file and selecting it, came up as unknown/unrecognized in the "Options" window.

The short version is that the MP3 importing/exporting is unconfigurable/unreliable/unusable and, as someone has already said, the best approach would seem to be to export your project as a .wav file and externally convert it to MP3 format...

I started by using my old v3.95-1 lame_enc.dll... I tried using my current v3.97 lame_enc.dll (used on another system, running 1.2.4). This was recognized Ok (the version number was shown in the Options panel)... but when I tried to do an MP3 export, it completed the export but Audacity crashed....Finally, I tried the v3.98-2 lame_enc.dll which is the latest version I could find. When browsing to this file and selecting it, Audacity simply didn't recognize it at all (which was also the case with the "installer" version from buanzo.com.ar as well). I'vealso tried various other builds of v3.98 and they all come up with the same issue....

All you need to do is follow the instructions on the FAQ that the LAME download button in Audacity takes you to. So, don't waste time with old versions of lame_enc.dll because they will not work, as mentioned in the Release Notes and here. Follow the instructions right down to the bottom including removing the lines in audacity.cfg starting with

[MP3]
MP3LibPath=

When you restart Audacity, select LAME again using the "Locate LAME" dialogue that pops up when you click "Locate" in the Import / Export preferences. If there is any problem, the best thing is to click the "Browse" button, navigate to where lame_enc.dll is and select and open it.


Gale