Audacity Forum

LMPeach01 wrote:s this sufficient to tell you what you need to know

That is sufficient to say that Audacity is running nicely on your computer.

I hope you were paying attention to what you did, because I'm going to ask a few questions about it (don't worry, it's not a test If there are any questions that you don't understand, just ask:
1) What sample rate were you recording at?
2) What do you have the bit depth set at?
3) Were these mono or stereo tracks?
4) When you import that MP3 track, what is the sample rate, bit depth and is it stereo or mono?

A second test:
Follow exactly the same procedure that enables you to record 16 vocal tracks, but after recording the first vocal track, Import the MP3 , then play - if it plays OK, continue recording other tracks.

1. my sample rate was 44100Hz
2. bit depth is 16
3. mono
4. same as above

A second test:
Follow exactly the same procedure that enables you to record 16 vocal tracks, but after recording the first vocal track, Import the MP3 , then play - if it plays OK, continue recording other tracks.

i tried this. the imported MP3 plays fine, but does not allow any recordings to be made over it without that same horrendous distortion at the 30s mark.....i also tried muting the imported track while recording over it and the same thing happens (though to a lesser degree).

This seems very odd.
I'm wondering if there is a problem with that MP3 file.

Let's try another experiment - this may provide a suitable workaround.
Open Audacity
Import the MP3 file
Export the track as a WAV file (16bit 44.1kHz)
Now close Audacity.

Try playing the WAV file in your media player - does it play OK?
If it does, then proceed

Open Audacity
Import the WAV file (not the original MP3)
Try recording a vocal track.

Does that work?

everything worked fine until i tried to record over the imported WAV file.....

but it plays in windows media player just fine and plays the same if played by itself in audacity. i'm not sure what else to do! i kind of feel SOL at the moment.....

Apologies for the delay - I've been having line problems with my internet connection.

Go to: "Edit menu > Preferences > Audio Files"
Set "Make a copy of the file before editing (safer)"

Then try the recording test again.

i tried the same test with recording over the WAV file (after changing the settings you suggested), but i still have the same problem with the distortion at :30.....

Apologies for the delay - finally got my internet sorted out (line fault).

I've kind of lost track of the story so far. Do you still have a problem, if so, could you give a quick recap on the situation. In particular, is the problem with one particular file?

yep, i still have the problem. it's with just the one WAV file and i've tried all sorts of suggestions that you've given me and so far nothing has worked...

Well if it's just that one file that is causing the issue, the finger of blame must be pointing at it.
If you could upload that file in full to sendspace or somewhere similar, I'll have a look at it.