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Improving usability
On the 21.12.2001 it finally happened '“ LAME MP3 encoder has an up to date stable version 3.90 out.
Even though LAME is the best MP3 encoder available, and it is freeware, there are still so many people not using it '“ why? One thing must have been that for ages LAME has only had up to date alpha & beta releases available. Actually LAME alphas are usually very stable (never crash, quality problems in some rare occasions) and LAME betas are rock solid, but people are cautious with these files. Well, the 3.90 should fix this.
On problem with LAME is that it is totally not user friendly. With LAME you have TONS of options that affect your output results & quality and you really need to have some expertise in order to discover the optimal settings. This has been discussed recently a lot and everyone agrees that we need a change. The new 3.90 release brings a lot of help to this issue, introducing the '“alt-preset settings. With '“alt-preset's you define only the desired quality and other options will be set to optimal automatically.
Improving quality
The quality improvements of this release are also very significant, pushing LAME further ahead. During the summer 2001 LAME performance was optimised by presetters R3mix (www.r3mix.net) and later by Dibrom (www.hydrogenaudio.org), who studied all the LAME options and worked out good command lines that were included in LAME source as presets. Dibrom however took things further and started forking the LAME source code and implementing his own ideas and tweaks. Dibrom was quite succesfull in this and now his work is included in the LAME 3.90.
How to encode with LAME 3.90?
Every smart ripper uses the Exact Audio Copy and EAC is also the most practical one to use with LAME. All you need to do is to tell EAC (compression options) to use external LAME encoder, browse the path of LAME.EXE and then apply settings to the additional command line field '“ can't be too difficult?
The recommended settings:
--alt-preset (fast) standard
The '--alt-preset standard" is the most optimal LAME setting at the moment. It produces bitrates around 200kbps (180-220kbps, it varies) with VERY high sound quality. If you include the 'fast" sub-option, you will get a significant speed improvement, but possibly a tiny bit lower quality (still very high, if any difference at all!). I recommend not use use the 'fast"-option, but if you have an older PC or you are just in a hurry, then feel safe to add it to the commandline.
--alt-preset (fast) extreme
The "exteme" is a slightly up-tuned version of the standard. It differs in ATH curve, noise measurement and uses more stereo frames, etc. This results in larger files (around 256kbps level average) and even higher quality, but the 'standard" really should be enough for almost everyone, unless you are a real Hi-Fi freak. Again the 'fast"-option increases speed significantly but may give a tiny bit lower quality.
--alt-preset insane
The 'insane"-option gives you the current theoretical maximum quality possible with LAME MP3 encoder, or with any other MP3 encoder. The output files are flat 320kbps. Using this may be a little insane, since the difference in quality in between 'extreme" and 'insane" is minimal. However, if you simply don't care about file size, want maximum quality, or you have hardware that can't handle VBR files, then you could use this option.
There is a lot more to it..
LAME is being developed faster than I can produce new articles. Therefore, if you are interested in maximum MP3 quality, or this article got you curious and you want to learn more, then you should browse around these links to get more info. There is a load of information available about audio compression, MP3 and how to use LAME for other purposes (low bitrate encoding, DIVX movie soundtracks, etc, etc)
LAME MP3 encoder home (includes a version history changelog)
CD-RW.ORG forum The place for MP3 and CD-R information
A list of up to date recommended LAME options at our forum
Hydrogenaudio.org Dibrom's website, the central of his LAME development work.
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Copyright 2001 CD-RW.ORG
