Exporting Audio - Audacity Manual

# Exporting Audio

From Audacity Development Manual
You must use the File > Export Audio command to make an audio file for playing on your music player, burning CDs or for use in other applications.

- Saving an Audacity project makes a database file that only Audacity can read and use.
- Please see Export Audio for full details of how to use this command.

Please be aware that when using Export Audio Audacity will only export tracks that are not grayed-out by use of the Mute or Solo buttons in the tracks' Track Control Panels.

So what you hear by previewing with playback prior to export is what you will get in the Exported audio file.

## Export Command

The Export command for exporting a single audio file This let you export either the whole project or a selected part of it.

- File > Export Audio exports all the un-muted audio tracks (or un-muted selections) in the project.

  By default, multiple mono tracks are mixed down to a mono file, but if you pan any mono tracks to left or right or if there are any stereo tracks among the tracks to be exported, the tracks are mixed to a stereo file.
  Note that the mono tracks are mixed to both the left and right channels of the resulting stereo file. See Mixing for details.

- Alternatively, you may export multiple audio files in a single process.

  This is useful when making a long recording or group of recordings that you want to export as separate songs. Selected tracks or regions are ignored when exporting multiple.
  See Export Multiple for more details on exporting multiple files.

If there are multiple audio tracks, exporting multiple files split on labels will export a mix of the tracks for each labeled area.

| For Export Audio, tracks on which the Mute button is pressed are not exported. There will be a warning if you export with all audio tracks muted.

## Export Audio dialog

In summary, there are several steps to follow when exporting:

- Choose the filename to export to.
- Choose the folder to export to.
- Select the Format required for your exported file.
- Choose the audio options that you require for your chosen format. Note that these will vary according to the format you choose.
- Choose the export range, whole project, selection or multiple files
- Optionally, press Edit Metadata to edit the metadata tags for your exported file.
  - The Metadata Editor dialog will then appear. This lets you enter embedded information tags in the file such as artist, year or genre.
- Press Export.

| Help with choosing the file name: Avoid periods (dots) in the file name, or you will have to add the extension such as .wav or .mp3 at the end of the name. Some characters cannot be used on all operating systems or for email or Internet use. For maximum compatibility use only: A to Z or a to z characters whole numbers (0 to 9) underscores ( _ )

See Export Audio Dialog for more detailed information on this dialog.

## Export Formats

There are a number of audio formats that Audacity, as-shipped, can export to. Other formats can be added by installing an extra software library.

- Shipped formats include WAV, AIFF, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and MP2.
- You may install the optional FFmpeg library to export to many more audio formats including AC3, M4A(AAC) including MP4 and WMA.

## Links

> Importing Audio

> LAME MP3 Export

> FFmpeg import/export libraries for more formats

> Metadata Tags Editor