exporting mp3 (SOLVED)

[suttlemyre]

I can export one of my guitar traks as a wav file and get a fairly good sound. If I export selection as mp3, it ruins the sound quality. What have I done, it used to work correctly.

[DVDdoug]

Try a higher bitrate setting (kbps). A variable bitrate setting of "0" or a constant bitrate of 320kbps will give you the "best" quality.*

MP3 is lossy compression... Less compression (higher bitrates & bigger files) generally gives you better quality.



* You can't say that 320kbps is "better" than 224 kbps unless it actually sounds better... MP3 is always lossy (byte-for-byte different than the original) and if two different bitrates both give you files that sound identical to the uncompressed original (in a proper blind listening test) the sound quality is the same and we cant say the higher bitrate is better. In fact if the sound quality is equal, the lower bitrate is giving you better compression (a smaller file).

The bitrate (or VBR quality setting) required for transparent compression (transparent = sounds identical to the original) depends on the program material and your ability to hear MP3 artifacts. Some difficult-to-compress sounds cannot be encoded to MP3 transparently at any bitrate. So, nobody can tell you what bitrate (or VBR quality setting) to use. If you don't care about file size, use 320kbps or V0 and don't worry about it...

[suttlemyre]

Some one with more experience than I at this, suggested I use more compression. The settings I used may have affected the quality of Mp3. I have not messed with the bit rate it's 320. Compression settings -------thres--12
noise---40
ratio---2;1
attack---.2
decay----1.0
are these settings correct for acoustic recording? thanks

[suttlemyre]

how do I change that mp3 bit rate?

[steve]

how do I change that mp3 bit rate?

Like this: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fi ... ialog.html

[suttlemyre]

guys that fixed it thanks.