We’ve already touched on how it’s not the most attractive program, but does offer a very familiar interface, so anyone who has used a computer program in the last 10 years will probably be able to find their way around pretty quickly.

It cuts, copies, splices and mixes audio adds effects to tracks, (like silences, fades, and reverbs) and supports a variety of plug-ins, including LADSPA, LV2, Nyquist, VST and Audio Unit. It can edit audio, record live and computer playback. What Audacity lacks in looks, it makes up for in pure functionality. This open-source software looks dated, old-fashioned, and frankly unattractive, but can edit an audio file professionally and quickly despite the fact that it’s entirely free. So without further ado, let’s head into Audacity to look at the settings available for exporting MP3.A classic audio editor that deserves its good reputationįor quick and dirty (and free) audio editing, you couldn’t ask for moreĪudacity has held a spot at the top of the audio editing charts since 1999 (!) and with good reason. What this means is that you will have different priorities depending on what your sound mix consists of. With spoken word, you can get away with a much lower bitrate without your listeners noticing any difference. Music has more complex data and is a stereo track, which means it will need a higher bitrate to sound ‘good,’ while a podcast, with just a voice in mono, is not as complex. If you are working with music, you generally need a higher bitrate than spoken word recordings, such as voiceovers or podcasts. You may have the greatest-sounding recording of all time, but if you convert it to a low bitrate, the sound will be poor.Īnd conversely, if you are using a $2 microphone and you record in your bathroom, it will not matter how many bitrates you throw on the MP3 to get a good result. In general, higher bitrates result in higher quality audio. The quantity of data that gets converted into audio is known as bitrate.

Audacity mp3