Recording an MP3 with Audacity
Audacity is a free sound recorder and editor which offers many improvements over Windows Sound Recorder. In this tutorial, we will cover how to record from a microphone and export your audio as an MP3. At the end are instructions on downloading and installing Audacity and the LAME MP3 Encoder.
Recording
1) Open Audacity.
2) Click on the record button to start your recording.
3) While recording, there are two levels to pay attention to:
- A. The microphone level- this slider determines how sensitive your microphone is.
- B. The recording level- this shows the volume level that is being recorded.
4) When you are finished with your recording, click the stop button.
5) To listen to your recording, click the play button.
6) To create the MP3 file, go to File->Export as MP3...
7) Choose where to save your file, enter a file name, and click Save.
8)
When prompted, click Yes to find tell Audacity where
to find the LAME MP3 encoder. If you have not downloaded or installed this, see the Downloading and Installing LAME section of this tutorial.
Note: Unless the LAME .dll file is moved or deleted, you will
only need to do this the first time.
9) Navigate to where you saved the file lame_enc.dll, select it, and click Open.
10) Enter ID3 tag information and click OK. All of these tags are optional and have no effect on content of your file. These tags provide information available in the file properties to help organize MP3 files.
Controlling File Size
The size of the MP3 file is determined by two factors: the length and the bit rate. The bit rate determines how many bits are used to encode a second of audio. The higher the bit rate, the higher the quality of the audio. The following three step show how to change the bit rate.
Note: This must be done before you export your file.
1) Select Edit->Preferences...
2) Click on the File Formats tab.
3) Adjust the Bit Rate to the appropriate level.
Use the lowest bit rate that still produces good quality sound. For comparison, here is the same file exported using three different bit rates. There is significant improvement between the 16 bit/s and the 40 bit/s, but there is little improvement between 40 bit/s and 320 bit/s.
| Bit Rate | File Size | File Size per Minute |
| 16 bit/s | 19.5 KB | 130 KB (0.1 MB) |
| 40 bit/s | 52.6 KB | 351 KB (0.3 MB) |
| 320 bit/s | 392 KB | 2613 KB (2.5 MB) |
Downloading and Installing Audacity
1) Go to the Audacity Website at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
2) Click Download Audacity 1.2.4b
Note: The version number may be different.
3) Click Audacity 1.4.2b Installer.
4) Choose a server that is geographically near you and click Download.
5) Click Save.
6) Choose where to save the file, and click Save.
7) Open audacity-win-1.2.4b.exe
8) Follow the instructions on screen to finish installation.
Downloading and Installing the LAME MP3 Encoder
1) On the Audacity downloads page, http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows, click LAME MP3 Encoder.
2) Click on LAME download page.
3) Click on any of the lame-3.96.1 links- all of the links will give you the same file.
4) Click Save.
5) Choose where to save and click Save.
6) Open the lame-3.96.1.zip file.
7) Select Lame_encl.dll.
8) Click Extract.
9) Choose 1. where to save the file and
2. click Extract.
Note: Be sure you know where you are placing lame_enc.dll, you
will need to find its location to create an MP3 in Audacity.
