Convert MP4 to MP3
Drop an MP4 and download an MP3 of its audio at 192 kbps. Sample rate and channel count carry through from the source, and the video track is discarded.
Two lossy passes
The audio inside an MP4 is almost always AAC, which is already lossy. Encoding it to MP3 throws away a second round of detail. At 192 kbps the difference is hard to hear on speech and noticeable on dense music.
Where MP3 is not a requirement, copying the AAC out keeps the audio exactly as the video held it. WAV is the other option when the file is heading into an editor.
Take a section
Drag a range across the waveform and tick the range option to write only that span, instead of exporting the whole thing and trimming afterwards.