JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques General Technical Forum Using Audacity version 1.2

Hi all, I have an older desktop PC that I just finished setting up with Win XP Pro and all service packs and updates.
I also installed a free copy of Audacity to begin recording some songs.

My 1st question is, if I record the guitar part and then later record the vocal how do I combine the 2?

2nd question - I'm getting an error when attempting to export to MP3 that the .dll cannot be opened. Despite following the online suggestions I cannot get it to work

Anyone out there able to help with either of these?

Thanks!

Peace,

Dave

Well,
Depending how old your computer is you may have to re start after recording one thing before recording again. I used to have to do that after I would scan and print something. It was frustrating. The second thing is, you may have an instruction manual in the software that you can investigate, by clicking on start and go to the program to see if there is a manual. If you are putting the resulting songs on a disc, the disc may need to be re-formatted, of which your computer should do when you do the transfer. Other than that it could just be an un compatiable problem and a newer computer is needed. Ain't Computers fun!

In Audacity, you record the first track and then go back to the beginning and hit record again and record a second track alongside the first. They are automatically combined. You can keep on adding tracks. The you can pan them and add effects, etc.

To export as an mp3, you must download LAME and put it in the folder on your computer where the instructions tell you (in with the other effects if I recall correctly). The you will be able to export as an mp3.

Let me know if you don't understand this.....

Colin beat me to the answers...I would add that you will need to tick the playback option to play tracks whilst recording a new one. This can be found by going to edit then click preferences then click recording then tick the box.

You can mute any tracks you do not want to hear whilst recording.

It is better to record a few takes of each track and use the best ones in the final mix. Tracks or sections of tracks can be edited together to form a final mix. Just drag the cursor over the piece you want to use and then copy and paste it into another empty track. There are a few useful FREE Audacity tutorials that are worth looking at. Just google Audacity tutrials.

Well....you have the best two men helping you, they ALWAYS come to my rescue on Audacity....Collin and Big Jim, both my heros on using Audacity


glyn

Thank you, gentlemen! I will put to good use your pearls of wisdom. I truly appreciate it.

And kudos to Glynda for the accolades! It's nice to have a cheering section.

Peace,

Dave

Well I got my tracks (guitar and vocal) all recorded thanks to the advice from the guys up there...

I still cannot, however, export to MP3. I saved the project and also exported as .wav. So NOW my question is...

how do I convert .wav to MP3?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Peace

Dave

There are conversion from .wav to mp3 software.
I use a standalone not connected to the internet since some of the software can contain spyware.

I use CDex.
I have used others here and there and Windows Media might even have a function for that.
But CDex has been the most reliable and compatible with it.

I would like opinions too with that.

Did you download the lame encoder?? May have to download it more than once...hopefully Collin or Big Jim will come back on and help out..tks glyn

These are the instructions for the LAME encoder which enables exporting to an mp3:

You can also convert a WAV to an mp3 in Windows Media Player using the "rip" function. You can choose the type of files you want in the options menu.

Audacity mp3 instructions:

For 1.3.3 and later users

First, if you are using Audacity Beta 1.3.3 or later, try exporting an MP3 straight away! 1.3.3 or later on Windows will look automatically in your system folders for the LAME encoder. If you already have it, you can export an MP3 by clicking File > Export, then in the Export File dialogue, choose MP3 Files in the Save as type dropdown, and click Save. After completing the Metadata Editor for your ID3 tags (just click OK if you don't want to change the tags), you should see the progress bar for the MP3 export. Otherwise, you will see the "Locate Lame" dialogue. If that occurs, press "Cancel" and proceed as per the following "All users" section.
All users

1. Download an unzipped copy of the required lame_enc.dll here
Left-click this link, do not right-click
2. Do not open this file, but save it to your computer. As you will be using this .dll file directly for encoding it is recommended to save it into your Audacity installation folder. This is normally at C:\Program Files\Audacity. Once lame_enc.dll is saved to your computer:
3. Launch Audacity, click Edit > Preferences then the File Formats tab. Note: In Audacity 1.2.x, it may be necessary to click the left-pointing arrow top right of the window to reveal the tab. In Audacity 1.3.4 this tab is called Audio Files; in 1.3.5 - 1.3.7 Import / Export; in 1.3.8 or later Libraries.
4. Look for the MP3 Export section.
5. Click on the "Find Library" or "Locate..." button
6. In Audacity 1.2.6 this will ask if you want to locate the LAME encoder. Click "Yes". In Audacity 1.3.3 or later, click the "Browse" button
7. In the dialogue box, go to the folder where you put lame_enc.dll earlier, and select it.
8. Click Open, then OK.

In the same "MP3 Export Setup" section, you can then in Audacity 1.2.6 set the bit rate of the exported MP3 by clicking on the downward pointing arrow in the "Bit Rate" dropdown.

In 1.3.3 or later, click File > Export, then choose MP3 in the "Save as type" dropdown and click the "Options" button to choose bit rate in the "Quality" dropdown. The default bit rate is 128 kbps in both versions of Audacity. A higher bit rate gives you higher quality at the expense of a larger filesize, and vice-versa. A 128 kbps bit rate takes up about 1 MB of space per minute. The "Options" button also gives access to more advanced MP3 encoding options as follows:

1. Bit Rate Mode (Variable, Average, Constant or use a Preset)
2. Encoding Speed (with other than constant bit rate encoding)
3. Channel mode (currently Stereo or Joint Stereo ).

Constant bit rate with stereo channel mode is always used by Audacity 1.2.5/6. Variable bit rate tends in most genres to give higher quality for the same bit rate.

Additional encoding options such as higher quality algorithms are available by choosing "external program" in the "Save as type" dropdown, then specifying the relevant commands to be passed to your MP3 encoder (such as LAME) in the dialogue box.

To export your Audacity recordings as Mp3....do what Colin says.


R&M...Yes there are tons of file converrters... some are free...but why bother when Audacity does it with one click if you download the Lame encoder. The reason it is not included in the Audacity program itself (which would be so much easier) is complicated and to do with licensing and usage regs...so they just recommend folks use it and provide a link to a download.



Thanks Glyn it is nice to feel appreciated....every once in a while.