Audio Recording

The default installation of Audacity in Ubuntu does not have an MP3 encoder. So it means that if you are processing a wav file in 44.1Khz 32 bit float (which is the default format) environment, you won’t be able to save or export the wav file as an MP3.

You still need to install LAME MP3 encoder in Audacity. The good news is that the installation is easy and straightforward.

You just need to follow the steps below:

Step1.) You need to close Audacity and all audio files.
Step2.) Go to System – Administration – Synaptic Package Manager.
Step3.) Enter your Linux password.
Step4.) Under Quick Search, type “lame” (no quotes), see screenshot below:

Examined carefully under the “Package” column; since you have no LAME encoder installed, these following packages should NOT have a green color marked before them:

a. lame = An MP3 encoding library (front end)
b. libmp3lame0 = An MP3 Encoding library
c. libtwolame0 = MPEG Audio Layer 2 encoding library

The above screenshot already shows that the required packages are INSTALLED, so you can see they have a green color marked before them.

Step5.) Marked these 3 packages, by clicking into them and selecting “Mark for installation”. A warning dialog might appear in one of those packages that other packages are also required to be installed, just click “Mark” also.

Step6.) If you see those 3 packages “pre-marked” , means they are ready to be installed. Hit “Apply”

Step7.) After installation, make sure that you have those 3 packages marked green, see below:

If only one or two of those 3 packages are green marked, then the installation is not properly done or it is lacking.

Proceed only to the next step if all of the complete packages are installed.

Step8.) Close the Synaptic Package Manager.

Step9.) Go to Applications – Sound & Video – Audacity. This will launched the Audacity audio editor.

Step10.) Open your Audacity project (the one you need to be exported as MP3). Go to File – Open.

Step11.) Once you see the wave fully loaded, see sample screenshot below:

Go to File – Export. Type the meta data (only Artist name and Track title are important).
Click “Add” and then OK.

Step12.) Make sure “MP3 files” are selected. You can click Options to set the MP3 bit rate. Type the file name of the MP3 and then finally click “Save”.

Step13.) Now you have LAME encoder fully installed , Audacity will use this one to export the file to MP3 and it will be converted without showing any errors. If you see errors during the conversion process, you might have missed some LAME related packages, so go back to the previous step and double check the installed packages.