Well, I tried every possibility and came up with results opposite of what I would have guessed. I am a total newb with Audacity and computer editing, so I really don't know what to think. Is it really possible to change just the header in Audacity without resampling?
Depends on what you mean by "set the sample rate". Two ways to do this:
- Track (black upside-down triangle dropdown next to track name) | Set Rate | <select rate> will change the WAV header, but not resample.
- Project Rate button | <select rate> will resample.
On a 1.03 GB file, I set the sample rate to 48k using both the track and Project Rate, and exported to wav. Took about 3 minutes and ended up with a 1.03 GB file. Track time changed from 1:44 to 1:36, was 48k and sounded fine.
- Track (black upside-down triangle dropdown next to track name) | Set Rate | <select rate> will change the WAV header, but not resample.
On the same 1.03 GB file, I set the sample rate to 48k using only the track option, and exported to wav. Took about 12 minutes and ended up with a 968.2 MB file. Track time showed 1:36, was 44.1k and sounded fine.
- Project Rate button | <select rate> will resample.
On the same 1.03 GB file, I set the sample rate to 48k using only the Project Rate, and exported to wav. Took about 10 minutes and ended up with a 1.12 GB file. Track time still showed 1:44, was 48k and sounded slow.