File Export Dialog
Clicking Export ... on the File Menu pops up the Export File dialogue:
This lets you specify the name, location and format of your exported file. Advanced settings for your chosen format can be accessed by clicking the Options button.
Contents
Save as type
Five different formats are normally available:
WAV, AIFF and other uncompressed types
Includes all the uncompressed audio formats that Audacity can export to. On Windows, the format defaults to WAV (Microsoft 16 bit PCM). On Macs it defaults to AIFF (Apple/SGI 16 bit PCM). Use this lossless format when you want to burn your exported file to an audio CD.
MP3 Files
The popular compressed, lossy MP3 format using the LAME MP3 encoder. Use this option if you want a much smaller file than WAV or AIFF, with some loss of audio quality. The format defaults to 128 kbps bit rate, giving you a file of about 1 MB per minute of audio.
Ogg Vorbis Files
OGG Vorbis is another compressed, lossy format. Compared to MP3, it offers higher quality for the same file size, but fewer applications can play this format.
FLAC Files
FLAC is compressed, but lossless like WAV and AIFF. FLAC files are larger than MP3s and OGGs, normally taking about 4 MB per minute of audio.
MP2 Files
MP2 format is a compressed, lossy format similar to MP3. It defaults to a 160 kbps bit rate. This produces comparable quality to 128 kbps MP3, but larger files. It's mainly used at higher bit rates in DVD soundtracks and radio broadcasting.
(external program)
This sends audio via a command line directly to an external application which can process or encode it then write it to a file. This is a way for example to export to an alternative MP3 encoder, or to a format not supported by Audacity.
Options
This button pops up a "Specify Options" dialogue, as in this example for Uncompressed Options:
Here you can choose alternative settings to the default ones for the particular format you are exporting to. Therefore, always select the "Save as type" before clicking the Options button. For an explanation of these advanced options for each format, click the appropriate link in the "Save as type" section above.
