Audacity Forum

Hi

I recorded a hypnotherapy session, which unfortunatley came out really quiet. Even when I turn my laptop volume right up or use earphones, it's still too quiet. I Googled it and it seemed Audacity was the best programme to use. However, if I open the 17 minute long MP3, it lasts two seconds in Audacity - makes a 'scratch' noise and then finishes. In all other programmes - i-tunes, WMP etc, it is definitely 17 minutes long.

My questions are:
1. How do I open the MP3 and make it last for 17 minutes? I've both gone to Open and Project> Import Audio.

2. Once I manage to open it properly, what are the correct procedures I should follow to increase quality? It's like a whisper at the moment, if that.

Many thanks all
Terri

<<<1. How do I open the MP3 >>>

Audacity will open up MP3 sound files just fine. That's not what you have. When Audacity encounters a highly compressed sound file that it doesn't understand, it tries to open it up and play it "in real time." A one minute show compressed 60 to 1 will play back in one second.

Audacity doesn't convert between file formats very well, so you need to find file conversion software. Alternately, convince your recording equipment to produce a WAV file. Everybody can open those all over the world. If you do that, you may be shocked how big the sound file really is.

You can convince both Windows and Macs to show you the whole filename and sometimes that solves a lot of mysteries. I bet your "real" sound filename is music.mp4.

After you get your show into Audacity, I would try the Normalize tool. If you recorded the show reeeeeally low, you may get a lot of noise and garbage amplified along with the performance.

There's nothing like capturing a live show in good condition. When you're forced to rescue a show at sea (post production), you're likely to get a show that's salty, waterlogged and half dead from exhaustion and exposure.

Koz