A little trouble with Exporting

[ibm000]

I mixed two files , 256 kbps and 1092 kbps

In what Kbps should I export ? 256 or 320 ?

cus im a bit confused ; if i export nethier .. one of the files will be bad

so what is the best one ?

[kozikowski]

one of the files will be bad

You may be confusing the quality of the sound with the bitrate. Every time you create a new compressed sound file, you compress the original show and the show's compression damage. This is the horror of downloading sound files for your production and over two exports creating honky, bubbly audio trash—all at the original bitrate.

Audacity doesn't work compressed. It de-compresses work out to the original form, edits it, and then executes a new compression. This is the horror of trying to edit some tiny, convenient MP3s and having them turn into monsters and watching the machine run out of memory.

If you export the work uncompressed, as a fuzzy rule, it won't get any worse. Anything else you do is going to create a quality decrease as a combination of the bitrates, even if the digital bitrate stays the same. Some of the newer file formats "know" how to work around this, but it's still not perfect.

Koz

[kozikowski]

As an example, ACX demands you submit your audiobook readings at 192 quality MP3. We strongly recommend you make your edit masters as uncompressed WAV (Microsoft) 16-bit, and then make an MP3 copy for submission.

You can never change or edit that MP3 without sound quality damage even if you stay at 192. Instead, edit the WAV file and then make a new MP3.

Koz