Audacity How To Q, reducing level of recording Options

[snuglivixen]

I'm hoping someone here can help me. I have a MP3 recording that I'm trying to edit. Thing is..... it's to loud, not as in just adjust volume, but it totally fills view bar a lot of the time and sounds awful. How can I reduce it to only just filling view bar occasionally? I tried altering the gain, which brought the green bars shorter and out of the red, but didn't alter the view nor much improve the sound. I've no training in music or using music programs so HELLLLLPPPPP :( I don't know where to start (apart from Audacity online help menu which didn't me help at all).
I'm trying to make a file I can play along to in my practice sessions, which means listening through earphones and that's jolly painful screechy now :o . I can't re-record the piece. Oh and I don't know the relevant terminology, so please treat me as a total beginner and spell it out for me?
Thanks
Lesley

[Andy-piano-flute]

If you pick up the entire track by clicking at the beginning or end & dragging the mouse along the whole track, & then click on effects at the top you should be able to choose amplify & then drag the slider to the left so you're decreasing amplification (-dB). Mind you I'm as computer illiterate as the best of them so I can't be sure it'll work :lol:

[SirPrancealot]

what you can do depends on whether it got overloaded before coding. if so there isn't much you can do except record it again. surprising it sounds distorted tho. over the years limiting on digi recorders has improved. on the earliest cd recorders it was dodgy. i presume you have input level control.

:(