I wish to create a voice-over demo with aired broadcast spots on mp3 files from various recording sources. Can someone please inform me how to move those files to Audacity for editing? Can I then convert & save the file of mp3 clips to another format, like WAV, which might be better quality for website audio play?
Thank you. D. Bateman
Audacity can import several audio file types, including WAV, AIFF, Ogg, FLAC and MP3.
Many more file types are supported if you also install FFMpeg: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/FAQ:Installation_and_Plug-Ins#ffdown
You cannot improve the quality of an MP3 by converting it to a different format.
The loss of sound quality that occurs due to MP3 encoding is permanent and irreversible.
To be able to export from Audacity in MP3 format you will need to install LAME http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/FAQ:Installation_and_Plug-Ins#lame
Some of them will let you right-click > Save As. Some of them you have to capture live using the Audio Playing on the Computer technique.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tutorial_recording_audio_playing_on_the_computer.html
But they are all going to be very highly compressed and unlikely to survive production and re-export. You might be able to do your production and export the show as WAV, AIFF or very high bitrate MP3. You won’t be able to go back down to a nice, efficient, tiny MP3 like the ones you started with. It will sound even weirder because your voice will sound perfect, but everything around you will sound like a bad YouTube download.
Good compression in audio or video starts with large, perfect, uncompressed files or performances
Koz