Downloading and Installing Audacity

In order to use Audacity to produce MP3 audio files, you need to download two components: the Audacity application itself; and the LAME encoder, which enables you to save your work in MP3 format.

1. Visit http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
   
   
2. Find the latest non-beta version of Audacity (what you are looking for is the latest version for Windows XP/Vista.
   
   
3. Download the the Audacity installer to your desktop.  The Audacity installer will be a file that ends with .EXE
   
   
4. Double-click on the the Audacity installer file and follow the default prompts.
   
   
5. When done, launch Audacity to make sure that it has installed correctly on your system.
   
   
6. Now that you have Audacity installed on your computer, you need to download the LAME encoder so that you can sale your files in MP3 format.  You can download the LAME encoder by right-clicking here and selecting the Save Target option.  Save the LAME file to your desktop so that it is easy for you to fine.
   
   
7. You're almost done; al that remains is to imported the LAME encoder into Audacity. 
   
   
8. Launch Audacity and create a sample audio file by clicking on the red button to record.  When done recording, click on the brown button.
   
   
9. Go to Audacity's File menu item and select the Export as MP3 option.  Give your file a name, and then click Save.
   
   
10. Clicking Save will display a pop-up box asking if you want to save the file in MP3 format; select Yes.
    
    
11. Selecting Yes will display another pop-up window.  In this window, select Yes again.
    
    
12. Selecting Yes in the second pop-up window will display a file search window.  Find the LAME encoder file (which you probably have save to your desktop, as instructed above).  Click on the encoder file (it will end with DLL), and then select Open.
    
    
13. A pop-window titled, Edit the ID3 tags will be displayed; just click OK.
    
    
14. Clicking OK saves your test file in MP3 format and the LAME encoder has been imported into Audacity.  From this point forward, you will not be asked to find the LAME DLL--you will be able to directly export audio files into MP3 format.