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audacity: lessons learned

I had used audacity before, to record a couple of old audio cassettes, cut them into tracks, and burn them on CD (and convert them to .ogg or .mp3). But that was years ago. Last week, I needed audacity again, and had to crawl out of two pitfalls before succeeding.
  1. don't export to a filename that you used or imported while editing. When you open a .wav file, use it in editing, and export, audacity needs the original file to produce the end result. So overwriting the original while audacity still needs it, does not work.
  2. exporting one stereo audio track will convert it to mono for some reason. You'll be left with sound on the left channel, and silence on the right channel. When you split the stereo audio track into two mono audio tracks, you can export the result as a stereo file (.wav, .mp3, whatever you choose).
The rest of the operation was rather simple, and I now have an enhanced digital version of my late grandfather singing, recorded more than 30 years ago !

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