Audacity 1.3.6 -- whistles when exporting to MP3

[dante_bothermy]

I'm transferring LPs to MP3 files.

When I export the files to MP3s, there's a distracting high-pitch whistling sound.

-- exports to WAV files don't have the problem
-- exports using version 1.2.6 don't have the problem

I have had occasional similar problems using LameDrop.

Any advice? Could it be the settings I use to export? (There aren't many I can control!)


Thanks.

[waxcylinder]

What export bitrate are you using? Have you tried setting a higher bitrate?

And what happens if you use an external converter program to create your MP3s?

WC

[TSMusic]

I've been having problems that I finally tracked down today to the MP3 export. I have the bit rate set to 128 and my exported file sounds like crap. I downloaded a trial version of MP3 Converter Simple and it works just fine. Night and day difference between the sound quality at the same bit rate. I had originally thought it was something in my song that was causing it but, I recorded a new song today and had the same #$&$(&%#&!!*(%)_Q#_Q## problem. So that's when I went to the different program (which is built around Lame as well).

FWIW

Tony

[steve]

There has been a spate of problems with LAME in Audacity recently - Unlike other MP3 encoders, LAME is still being developed. I think that for a while the Audacity web site was linking to Lame v 3.98 but this had some problems, so they have gone back to v.3.97

The current version of Lame is 3.98.2 which includes some bug fixes since v.3.98 - I don't know if anyone has tried that version. (I'm using 3.98.0 on Linux and it seems fine).

[TSMusic]

I poked around on the systems here and found that one piece of software had installed a late version 3.9.6 so I tried that....

It works...grrrrrrrrrrrrr. If I spent a minute, I must have spent 25 hrs trying to track down the source of the problem, reprocessing the MIDI tracks, re-recording the guitar parts, etc etc etc.

Needless to say, I opened up a big old bottle of CUSS on this one.

Thanks

Tony

[dante_bothermy]

What export bitrate are you using? Have you tried setting a higher bitrate?

And what happens if you use an external converter program to create your MP3s?

WC

I just upped the bitrate from 128 or 256 to 1024 and the whistling is still there. and I lowered it too,. No change

The external converter from WAV to MP3 (LameDrop) works just fine. No whistling

[dante_bothermy]

The crazy thing is that when I take the files recorded in Audacity 1.3.6 and export them using Audacity 1.2.6, everything works fine.

So I guess that's my answer, record on 1.3.6 (because 1.2.6 crashes too much) and export from 1.2.6 (because 1.3.6 distorts too much).

Simple, Neh?

[TSMusic]

The crazy thing is that when I take the files recorded in Audacity 1.3.6 and export them using Audacity 1.2.6, everything works fine.
So I guess that's my answer, record on 1.3.6 (because 1.2.6 crashes too much) and export from 1.2.6 (because 1.3.6 distorts too much).
Simple, Neh?

Check the version of lame_enc.dll you are using. Or just look at the files, if there is a difference in size, you have 2 different versions. Rename the one you are using with 1.3.6 to something else and copy the one in from 1.2.6.

Tony