This detailed and step by step tutorial will show you how to extract the audio from an MP4 video file, using Open Source (free) software. That way you can listen to it on your computer, smartphone, iPod etc, or burn it to an audio CD.
Background
Audacity simply denied opening the file. It out-rightly rejected and kept annoying me that it can’t do the usual job. Import Video failed in Audacity. This was quite frustrating, I never faced this issue on Ubuntu and suddenly what happened on Windows. I tried restarting OS, uninstalled audacity, installed codecs and nothing seems to work. Open Audacity, select File and then Open Navigate to the MP4 video file that you want to copy the audio from. Select the file by clicking on it once, and then click the Open button. It may take a bit to open the file – the larger the MP4 file, the longer it will take to open. How to change volume in Audacity? Audacity is a free, open source and cross-platform audio software for multi-track recording and editing. It supports Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. All these factors help Audacity have gained a great welcome all over the word.
Audacity Mp4
MP4 files are one of the most common format for video recording devices (the GoPro is a good example). There may come a time (or lots of times) when you want to listen to the file but not necessarily watch it. These steps will show you how to create a separate “audio only” file.
- The LAME MP3 encoding library allows Audacity to export audio in the popular MP3 format. LAME is now bundled in with the latest Audacity version. The FFmpeg import/export library allows Audacity to import and export many additional audio formats such as AC3, AMR(NB), M4A and WMA, and to import audio from video files. Audacity 2.0.6 and later requires FFmpeg 1.2 to 2.3.x (or libav 0.
- Audacity, largely being audio-editing software, cannot support the import and export of MP4 files but MP3 files. For the ones who are looking to edit their videos, thus require a different program to import or export their MP4 files into the interface.
Audacity Mp4 Import
Note: while the the steps and images in this guide are from a Mac users perspective, nearly everything is identical for Windows users. Not only is the software available for OS X and Windows (and Linux!) – it looks the same no matter which you’re using.
Audacity Mp4 Export
Extract Audio from MP4
Let’s jump right in!
- If you don’t have the wonderful audio software Audacity already installed, head over to the Audacity download page (link opens in a new tab/window). Download the version for your Operating System (Windows, macOS, Linux)
- Open Audacity, select File and then Open…
- Navigate to the MP4 video file that you want to copy the audio from. Select the file by clicking on it once, and then click the Open button. It may take a bit to open the file – the larger the MP4 file, the longer it will take to open.
- NOTE: at this point you may get an error message. If you do, fear not, the solution is simple. Just follow the steps outlined in this brief guide (opens in a new browser tab/window) to add “MP3 support” to Audacity. Then repeat steps 2-3 and you won’t ever have that problem again.
A new Audacity window will appear, displaying all of the audio information from that MP4 file.
- With that window open, select File and then Export…
- From here you can choose the format you want to save the audio as. If you’re going to burn it directly to CD, select .wav so that you get the highest possible audio quality. Otherwise you can select MP3.
- Now click the Save button.
- Enter the song metadata if appropriate, then click the OK button.
- Now the audio will be extracted and saved.
- When finished, go and check the audio file to make sure everything worked – and then you’re done!