How to Record Sound as MP3 Files Using Audacity

Audacity is a very popular open-source sound recording software that works across multiple platforms. It can record sound from multiple sources like the Line-In cable, microphone and the sound mixer of your computer. You can direct almost any type of audio source (your TV audio, radio audio, smartphone audio etc.) into the Line-In port of your PC and record the audio thereof. Similarly, you can use any type of microphone and record the sound of anything that it can capture. But Audacity save the recorded audio in only the WAV file format by default which take a lot of space on your local disk. If you want to record the sound and save it directly as MP3 files, then you can use the Lame MP3 Encoder to do the transcoding of the audio instantly.

In order to make the Audacity save the recorded audio as MP3 files, you can follow these steps:

  1. Download the Lame MP3 Encoder from http://lame.buanzo.org/#lamewindl (choose the ZIP version and not the installer version).
  2. Extract the file lame_enc.dll from the downloaded ZIP file to the Audacity folder (where audacity.exe exists).
  3. Now launch Audacity and select Edit → Preferences from the menubar to open the Audacity preferences.Audacity Save As MP3 File
  4. In the preferences window, switch to the Libraries section and then make sure that Audacity is detecting the Lame MP3 Encoder library. If it is detecting the Lame MP3 library, then a version number is displayed, e.g., “LAME 3.99.3”. If it displays the message – “MP3 export library not found”, then you can click on the Locate button and choose the file lame_enc.dll file on your hard disk.Audacity Save As MP3 File
  5. Once all this is done, you can record a new audio and then save it as MP3 file by selecting File → Export Audio from the menubar and finally choose “save as MP3 files” in the file save dialog.Audacity Save As MP3 File

Audacity can save the recorded audio in the popular MP3 file format directly without needing any third party conversion tool. For this you have to install the Lame MP3 Encoder library after which it is able to save files in the MP3 format.

You can download Audacity from http://audacityteam.org/ and Lame MP3 Encoder from http://lame.buanzo.org/#lamewindl.

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