Audacity Forum

I am trying to convert vinyl to MP3 but I've hit a problem at the first hurdle!

After creating the audio file in Audacity I am now trying to convert it to MP3 but when I try to export it I get the following message "You don't have permissions to save in this location. Contact the administrator to obtain permission. Would you like to save in the music folder?

It's my personal laptop so I am the administrator with full permissions! Secondly when I click yes to save in the music folder on my laptop I get the next message "Audacity needs the file lame_enc.dll to create MP3s. To get a free copy of LAME click here" (a download link). The link takes me to the Audacity 2.4.2 Manual page. When I then scroll to "LAME MP3 export" I get another message saying "the LAME encoding library has expired so now the LAME library for MP3 export is built-in with Audacity for Windows"

And that's it so I'm back to the start!!!

I just want to convert the audio file I've created from a record to MP3, that's all, nothing complicated or advanced! Seriously frustrating!!

I am using a Lenovo laptop with Windows 10 and Audacity version 2.1.2

Any help folks would be greatly appreciated, Stewart

Hi Folks

Problem solved! I've updated to the latest version of Audacity! However, the sound quality on playing back the MP3 was truly dreadful!!

Stewart1966 wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 23, 2021 12:55 pm

Problem solved! I've updated to the latest version of Audacity!

Thanks for the update.

Stewart1966 wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 23, 2021 12:55 pm

However, the sound quality on playing back the MP3 was truly dreadful!!

How was the sound quality in Audacity (before exporting as MP3)?
If you export as WAV, what is the sound quality like?

Hi Steve

Thanks for the reply. This is the first time I've ever used Audacity so it's all new to me. I didn't listen to the playback in Audacity: I just saved as MP3 into my laptop but then when playing it back it sounded like I'd tried to record a song from the tv using an old cassette recorder from the back of a very long room!

I've just tried another song and played it straight back in Audacity and it's just the same, awful beyond belief. Don't think I'll bother converting that one to MP3 ha

Stewart1966 wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 23, 2021 1:30 pm

it sounded like I'd tried to record a song from the tv using an old cassette recorder from the back of a very long room!

My guess is that you are recording from the laptop's mic rather than directly from your turntable.
To test if that's the case, try making another recording and shout at the laptop while recording - my guess is that the recording will pick up your shouting.

How is your turntable attached to the laptop?
Which make / model is your turntable?