I like having field recordings in MP3 because I can store and organize them as easily as my other MP3s. My only hesitation is that I'll lose sound quality if I ever try to use them in a podcast, a song, or some other purpose.
So I have two questions:
- Is there a recommended program for editing MP3s in a non-destructive way? I use Linux, and Audacity is destructive. If I open an mp3 to trim it, the program will decode it, then re-encode it. FFMPEG is a linux library that does non-destructive MP3 editing, but I have yet to find a good GUI for it. Furthermore, I'd like to fade the ends of my recordings, and I don't know if there's any way to do this withoug re-encoding.
- How much damage is actually done if I'm importing MP3s at 320k, tweaking them (normalizing, compressing, editing), then re-encoding as a 320k MP3? I suspect audio compression would expose audible data compression worst of all, but again, I don't know how perceptible this is at 320k.