Podcaster's Portal: exporting audio

Exporting audio with Audacity Podcaster's Portal: exporting audio

Exporting audio

IN THIS ARTICLE

Brief description of WAV, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis file formats
How to export an audio file using Audacity

Audio and sound are quite complex to understand. However, for the beginner, it’s helpful to understand the difference between the three digital sound file types Audacity uses.

The three file formats Audacity uses are WAV, MP3 and Ogg Vorbis. These are all digital audio file formats.

WAV Files

WAV is an industry standard file format for saving sound. WAV files are uncompressed and, if used properly, of high quality. The problem with WAV files – and indeed any uncompressed file - is they take up a lot of disc space.

It is important to have good quality material to work on. Therefore, WAV files tend to be used when editing material at the production stage. However, they are generally not necessary for general playback except when you are recording for a hi fi buff.

MP3 Files

MP3 files are quite common these days with the popularity of MP3 players and iPods. MP3 is a compressed audio file format.

Unlike WAV files, MP3 files don’t take up much space on your disc. That’s why MP3 is the ideal file format for podcasts. The quality is not as good as WAV, but the average person will not notice much difference.

Because MP3 is a proprietary file, software programs exporting data as an MP3 file must use a proprietary software. Because Audacity is not proprietary, it has a function that links into other programs to export MP3 files.

To export an MP3 file in Audacity, you need to load Lame Encoder which you can find on the Internet for free. Once you have this on your desktop, Audacity will ask you to locate it when exporting your first MP3 file. Once you’ve done this, you can export MP3 files easily.

Ogg Vorbis

Like MP3 files, Ogg Vorbis files are compressed. In fact they tend to save a little more space than MP3 files. Ogg Vorbis files are not as popular as MP3 files because they are free from patents and licensing restrictions. Being a non-proprietary file format, there is no company promoting it.

Exporting and saving audio

There will be two occasions to save work. The first is when you are working on a project and second, when you have finished your work. It’s important to get into the habit of saving your work regularly while you are working on a project.

If you are still working on your project, you can save it as a project using the file menu. This will save your entire project including edits and envelopes. If you need to go back in and adjust them, you can do so.

If you have finished your audio track and it is ready to be burned onto a CD or uploaded to the web as a single stereo or mono file, you will export your file. It then becomes a single file with only two tracks. These are the left and right track of stereo.

Can you make changes to your file?

Once you have exported your file, it is complete. All you can do is load it as a stereo track in Audacity and cut and splice.

If you want to tweak a sound, add a special effect or change the volume of only one out of several tracks, it's too late. You can only make such changes to the project file.

To export your file, click on the file menu and select the format in which you want to export. It will be either uncompressed WAV or compressed MP3 or Ogg Vorbis.

Simply export it to the drive on which you are keeping your audio. When you have finished your project and are sure that there will be no need for further changes, you can save space on your disc by deleting the project, but keep the exported file.


Save your project so you can work on it further by selecting the file menu and clicking save project.	Export your final product by selecting file menu and clicking on export as either a WAV, MP3 or Ogg Vorbis file.