[rob187]

I've heard Lame gives you better mp3 rips, than say, musicmatch jukebox would give you. What I wan't to know is, why? I've done some research and can't find a whole lot of info about it, except for hearing "it's better." My only guess would be that lame offers you the VBR, ABR, and CBR modes. Is that it? Thanks.

 

[kingsqueak]

There are some different implementations of how the mp3 is generated. Lame is one of them. There are characteristics between the different encoders, lame is about the best.

Try lame -V2 --vbr-new file.wav

It will give you an amazing quality mp3. That's the setting I keep coming back to for files that are small enough and still high quality.

If space isn't an issue, you may want to rip to FLAC, it's a lossless compression, the smallest file you can get without losing any of the original content.

 

[rob187]

Thanks.

I've been comparing the qualities between lossless and lame alot over the past few days. I've found around VBR2 or 3 is where I can't tell a difference.

 

[NiceCans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rob187 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks. I've been comparing the qualities between lossless and lame alot over the past few days. I've found around VBR2 or 3 is where I can't tell a difference.

That's pretty much the way it was designed to work. I think they even say on the LAME site or at Hydrogen Audio that -v2 is the point where most can no longer discern the difference.

 

[HFat]

I've not seen it written that way... the default (V2) is indeed supposed to sound as good for most people but OTOH I don't think they say more agressive settings will not sound transparent for most people. The default is very conservative IMO and I think that's a good thing because it may help to steer people away from outdated notions about MP3s sounding bad.
I believe most people couldn't tell, say, V5 --vbr-new with recent LAME versions from the original but it depends on so many variables (samples/music used, hearing of the listener, dedication, gear used, and so on) that it's really hard to know what settings will be of sufficient quality for a given person.

 

[Cid]

For the record, I can clearly hear the difference between -v2 and flac on my dads setup, however on my own setup I can't (because I'm using much cheaper equipment). For the future use Flac, there will come a time when even on a cheaper setup you'll be able to hear a difference in quality.

 

[Denim]

This may be an assumption, but I'd expect any talk of Lame to include EAC. EAC hands off the best wav file that can be extracted from the CD to Lame so that the MP3 file will not have any flaws from defects or scratches in the disc.

My current preference is -V1 --vbr-new.

 

[ShadowVlican]

i use:
Code:

[left]-V0 --vbr-new[/left]

since space is not an issue and my portable device doesn't support lossless

 

[NiceCans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShadowVlican /img/forum/go_quote.gif i use: Code: [left]-V0 --vbr-new[/left] since space is not an issue and my portable device doesn't support lossless

Same here but I rip to flac, the mp3 is just for my portable

 

[rauer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rob187 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've heard Lame gives you better mp3 rips, than say, musicmatch jukebox would give you. What I wan't to know is, why? I've done some research and can't find a whole lot of info about it, except for hearing "it's better." My only guess would be that lame offers you the VBR, ABR, and CBR modes. Is that it? Thanks.

If you want to find objective comparisons, including blind test results, you'll find a ton of info at Hydrogenaudio

 

[Redo]

I find the artifacting between -v 0 and -v 2 to be identical, so I feel that anything over -v 2 is a waste of space.


But that's only on one or two symbol decays from Steely Dan. They both are very pure sounding compression for 99.7% of all my music.

 

[lutwey]

what the hell is lame? as a newbie all i know is that lame=whack //no joke

 

[Rempert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lutwey /img/forum/go_quote.gif what the hell is lame? as a newbie all i know is that lame=whack //no joke

LAME is an mp3 encoder (that is, it converts .wav files into .mp3 files with various settings). The name LAME is an acronym for "LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder". This is a great example of how Linux geeks go out of their way to make things as confusing as possible for the rest of us.

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lutwey /img/forum/go_quote.gif what the hell is lame?

LAME is an open-source MP3 encoder. Considered by many to be the best MP3 encoder out there.
Read more and download: http://lame.sourceforge.net/index.php

 

[Febs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lutwey /img/forum/go_quote.gif what the hell is lame?

Description of LAME encoder from the Hydrogen Audio knowledgebase.