Exporting Audio

You must use one of the Export commands to make an audio file for playing on your music player, burning CDs or for use in other applications. Saving an Audacity project only makes a text file that tells Audacity how to work with the audio you see in Audacity itself.

Export Commands

There are two Export commands for exporting a single audio file. These let you export either the whole project or a selected part of it.

• File > Export > Export Audio... exports all the audio tracks 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, the tracks are mixed to a stereo file. See Mixing for details.
• File > Export > Export Selected Audio... exports only the selected audio, mixing it down as above.

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.

• File > Export > Export Multiple... exports multiple files in one process, one file for each audio track, or one file for each labeled area in a track.
• Use Edit > Labels > Add Label at Playback Position prior to export to add labels so as to split a long Audacity track into separate song tracks.
  • If there are multiple audio tracks, exporting multiple files split on labels will export a mix of the tracks for each labeled area.

For either Export Audio, Export Selected Audio or Export Multiple, 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 and Export Selected Audio Dialogs

The identical Export File or Export Selection dialogs enable you to select the file name, folder location, audio format (such as WAV or MP3) and any options for that format (such as file size compression or bit depth).

1. Choose your folder location.
2. Type the name of your audio file in the File name box.

   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. Use A to Z or a to z characters, whole numbers (0 to 9) and underscores ( _ ) for maximum compatibility.

3. Choose your file type (export format) from the Save as type dropdown.
4. Press the Options... button.to check if the format has additional settings that control its quality.
5. Press Save to export the audio.

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

Export Multiple Dialog

The Export Multiple dialog has extra choices for whether exported files are split based on labels or audio tracks and whether numerical prefixes or suffixes are added to the name.

1. Choose your export format from the dropdown (press the Options... button.to check if the format has additional settings that control its quality).
2. Choose the export location - either over-type in the text box (use Create... to create the directory named in the box if needed) or browse for the folder to export to using Choose....
3. Select whether splits are based on labels or tracks using the radio buttons in the Split files based on: box.
   • If exporting based on labels, put a check mark in  Include audio before first label and choose a file name if you require an exported file for any audio to left of the first label.
4. Select a numbering scheme for file names (none, numbering before or numbering after) using the radio buttons in the Name files: box.

   Some characters cannot be used on all operating systems or for email or internet use. When typing a folder name or file name (including Audacity track names, names in labels or the Export Multiple "file name" boxes) use A to Z or a to z characters, whole numbers (0 to 9) and underscores ( _ ) for maximum compatibility.

5. Use  Overwrite existing files to enable overwriting of existing files with the same name if desired.
6. Click on Export to export the audio.

See Export Multiple for more 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 extra software libraries.

• As shipped formats include WAV, AIFF, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and MP2.
• To export as MP3, the optional Lame MP3 encoder must be installed.
• You may install the optional FFmpeg library to export to many more audio formats including AC3, AMR(NB), M4A(AAC) including MP4 and WMA.