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Topic: [Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings (Read 306735 times) previous topic - next topic
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[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #225 –
Quote from: Alex B on
Guruboolez tried a lot of samples with various MP3 encoders at ~96 kbps here:
http://forum.hardware.fr/hardwarefr/VideoS...jet-84950-1.htm

LAME was clearly the best MP3 encoder and he chose it to be used in the test.


The FhG codec was tested in CBR mode, but lame was tested in ABR mode.

It is an interesting test though. I don't think guru translated it for publication on HA, but it makes enough sense in the original French even if you don't speak it!

Your ABX results are interesting because some of the tracks where I heard the biggest difference were nearly mono.

This is probably a difficult topic to generate interest in here on HA, because none of us are encoding at 96kbps CBR!

Cheers,
David.

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #226 –
Quote from: 2Bdecided on
The FhG codec was tested in CBR mode, but lame was tested in ABR mode.

Not exactly. Two Fraunhofer encoders were tested (WMP and Adobe Audition's one). WMP was set to CBR 96 whereas Audition allowed VBR encodings.
I used two different settings for Fhg VBR (-q20 & -q30) because average bitrate isn't the same with "classical" music and "various" music.

It may be interesting to note that all VBR encodings were finally coded in stereo (and not "joint stereo"): it's likely to be a bug, because I explicitely check the option "joint stereo" in the GUI. I discovered it much later. In other words, Fhg VBR with a proper stereo coding mode may sound better than what I tested last year (and can therefore be closer to LAME or simply better than it).

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #227 –
Thanks guru,

I saw that bit, but haven't been keeping track with FhG codecs to know which one ships with Audition now.

The last one I have still has the "bad" HQ mode, but the "good" FastEnc. I assumed the WMP 96kbps CBR was nearly equivalent to "FastEnc", but could be wrong.


Interesting that they messed up joint stereo with VBR. At that bitrate, you'd think even intensity stereo would be an option.

Cheers,
David.

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #228 –
please confirm - there is NO ANY DIFFERENCE IN QUALITY between --vbr-new and non vbr-new settings:
lame -V 2 file.wav file.mp3
lame -V 2 --vbr-new file.wav file.mp3
produce same quality, but on different speed?

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #229 –
"In terms of quality, --vbr-new appears to be better than the old model ... --vbr-new is currently recommended over the default VBR mode due to both the speed and quality increases afforded by the new algorithm."
See wiki.

Edit: formatting.

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #230 –
Quote
3.97beta -> Latest LAME version. Recommended at last! Check List of Recommended LAME settings.


Would someone please modify the quoted sentence to somehing "like 3.97 final-> .... " as 97 has gone final?

[NOTE: This is from the thread " Lame versions and alphas - READ THIS!" - the Pinned Thread

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #231 –
Quote from: Gabriel on
What about something like:

VBR settings provide different quality levels, adapted to different configurations/needs.
A few examples:
V5 seems to be appropriate on portable devices used in a nomadic way.
V4 seems to be appropriate is you pay a moderate/medium attention to the music.
V2 will likely be transparent to standard people.
V0 will give you the highest VBR quality, but is a bit extreme regarding bitrate/file size.


For V2 I would say:
V2 will likely be transparent to standard people with not standard equipment

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #232 –
Is there anywhere a short summary why these are recommended LAME settings?
Actually, there are several recommended settings.
I opted for this one:
-V 0 --vbr-new --id3v2-only --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d
While there is a lot of explanation and description of quality settings, I don't see explanation why e.g. --pad-id3v2 parameter is recommended, or why other parameters
--ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d
are included and some others are not (like --tg for genre).

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #233 –
The lame.exe "--pad-id3v2" switch is recommended because it avoids the whole file needing to be re-written during tag-updates later on(unless the update adds more than 128 bytes to the ID3v2 tag). The lame.exe tagging switches are recommended instead of EAC's own tagging implementation because some people have reported problems with EAC's tagging implementation. The lame.exe "--tg" switch isn't recommended because if the genre isn't one of 148 genres that lame.exe supports, then those files won't be encoded to MP3 and lame.exe shows an error message. I would personally recommend to use the "--tg" switch in addition to the "--ignore-tag-errors" switch, which will make lame.exe still encode files with un-supported genres and just set the genre tag to "Other".

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #234 –
Quote from: Martin H on
The lame.exe "--tg" switch isn't recommended because if the genre isn't one of 148 genres that lame.exe supports, then those files won't be encoded to MP3 and lame.exe shows an error message. I would personally recommend to use the "--tg" switch in addition to the "--ignore-tag-errors" switch, which will make lame.exe still encode files with un-supported genres and just set the genre tag to "Other".

Hmmm,
I planned to use some unsuported genres. Does that mean that if I put in EAC as a genre e.g. "HR Rock" that it will actually be converted into "Other" by Lame?
Is there any way to use custom genres in mp3 tags?
I know that for flac tags, genres are not predefined, I just need to figure out how to put them there.

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #235 –
Quote from: Nik on
Does that mean that if I put in EAC as a genre e.g. "HR Rock" that it will actually be converted into "Other" by Lame?

Yes, if you use lame.exe's "--ignore-tag-errors" switch. If you don't, then the file(s) will not even be encoded and an error message displayed in the console.
Quote
Is there any way to use custom genres in mp3 tags?

Yes, but not with lame.exe's ID3v2 implementation. You can either use EAC's own tagging implementation which does support custom genres, or you could use the REACT EAC plugin, which uses metamp3.exe for MP3 tagging and which does support custom genres.

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #236 –
Quote from: Martin H on
Quote from: Nik on

Does that mean that if I put in EAC as a genre e.g. "HR Rock" that it will actually be converted into "Other" by Lame?

Yes, if you use lame.exe's "--ignore-tag-errors" switch. If you don't, then the file(s) will not even be encoded and an error message displayed in the console.

It seems that there's no point doing that. Why specifying custom genre, when it will be tagged as Other.
I can then specify it as Other in the first place.
Quote from: Martin H on
Quote

Is there any way to use custom genres in mp3 tags?

Yes, but not with lame.exe's ID3v2 implementation. You can either use EAC's own tagging implementation which does support custom genres, or you could use the REACT EAC plugin, which uses metamp3.exe for MP3 tagging and which does support custom genres.

How do I use EAC's tagging implementation? Does that mean that I cannot use Lame as an external encoder in that case?

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #237 –
No, you can still use lame.exe for encoding. Just remove the lame.exe tagging switches from your command-line and then enable "Add ID3 tag" under "Compression Options > External Compression". You can adjust the ID3 settings under "Compression Options > ID3 Tag".

Please read an EAC guide to get to learn the different settings of EAC.

SatCP's EAC Quickstart Manual :
http://users.pandora.be/satcp/eac-qs-en.htm#quickstart

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #238 –
When using a command line does it matter if there is a space or not between the -V and the number because on the Wiki's LAME page it references it both ways, e.g. -V4 --vbr-new and -V 4 --vbr-new?

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #239 –
Quote from: Martin H on
No, you can still use lame.exe for encoding. Just remove the lame.exe tagging switches from your command-line and then enable "Add ID3 tag" under "Compression Options > External Compression". You can adjust the ID3 settings under "Compression Options > ID3 Tag".

Please read an EAC guide to get to learn the different settings of EAC.

SatCP's EAC Quickstart Manual :
http://users.pandora.be/satcp/eac-qs-en.htm#quickstart


Thanks,
but I'm using flacattack to convert to both flac and mp3, so it's a bit more complicated. I'm still trying to figure out how parameters are passed between EAC->flacattack->lame and EAC->flacattack->flac.
Any instructions/explanation about that?

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #240 –
I have no experience with Flacattack, but i have just checked and it uses lame.exe for tagging, so you're out of luck with that, i'm affraid.

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #241 –
Hi
Can any1 explain whats EAC command line option, 
%l--alt-preset 128%l  %h--alt-preset standard%h  %s%d
Bit rate 192
High quality
Its totally different from the recomended settings

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #242 –
Quote from: jerry on
Can any1 explain whats EAC command line option, 
%l--alt-preset 128%l  %h--alt-preset standard%h  %s%d
Bit rate 192
High quality
Its totally different from the recommended settings


EAC allows you to toggle between two encoding settings for an external compressor: Low and High.

The settings between %l %l are the "low" and the %h %h the "high".  They can be any two settings you choose. The radio buttons let you choose which settings will be passed to the LAME encoder.

--alt preset 128 and --alt preset standard are outdated LAME parameters.
--alt preset 128 = Average Bit Rate (ABR) of 128 = --abr 128  (in 3.95+)
--alt preset standard = generally accepted as transparent (equal to CD) = -V3  (in 3.95+)

See HA LAME Wiki, the top of this thread, or the quick start cited earlier in this thread for the current equivalents. There are a whole host of variations you can use.
Mine is: %l-V3 --vbr-new%l%h-V0 -q0 -b32 --vbr-new%h %s %d
Low Setting: -V3 --vbr-new
High Setting: -V0 -q0 -b32 --vbr-new

Note: I do not recommend using my settings, I just place them here as an example.

With these, and most other command line options in the external compressor screen,  the bit rate pull down is ignored.

%s and %d are EAC variables for the "source" (wav) and "destination" (mp3) paths of the encoded file. They complete the LAME command line.

All of this can be confusing, since different sources each have their own set of recommended and best settings, some more current than others.
EAC secure | FLAC  --best -V -b 4096 | LAME 3.97 -V0 -q0 -b32

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #243 –
Quote from: Martin H on
The lame.exe "--pad-id3v2" switch is recommended because it avoids the whole file needing to be re-written during tag-updates later on(unless the update adds more than 128 bytes to the ID3v2 tag). The lame.exe tagging switches are recommended instead of EAC's own tagging implementation because some people have reported problems with EAC's tagging implementation. The lame.exe "--tg" switch isn't recommended because if the genre isn't one of 148 genres that lame.exe supports, then those files won't be encoded to MP3 and lame.exe shows an error message. I would personally recommend to use the "--tg" switch in addition to the "--ignore-tag-errors" switch, which will make lame.exe still encode files with un-supported genres and just set the genre tag to "Other".


I found a list of Lame supported  genres,
but number 42 is missing.
Do you know what is it?

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #245 –
It's : Soul

I have just tested it out and lame.exe does support the "Soul" genre also, so it is just a mistake in the LAME documentation.

Edit: Not fast enough

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #246 –
HI GUYS
Great threat, old though haha.

Until now I was encoding with nero, at 128 kbps.
But that's not good enough, so I checked LAME.

Everyone say that using -V2 its good enough. -V2 it's between 170 kbps and 210 kbps.
I want stereo, NOT Joint stereo. And the ability to encode FLAC to LAME.
I run some tests using LameXp.

With Quality 2 (V2) in Winamp says 271 kbps (VBR). Isn't it supposed to be between 170 and 210? 271 is way up.

So I tried restricting the bitrate. I want 192 VBR, so I used 2 above and 2 bellow. I mean, encode between min: 160 and max: 224 kbps. This got a song with 223kbps (VBR). In the range.

Am I doing something wrong? I think the quality bar in LameXP is wrong.
What do you think about encoding between 160 and 224?

best luck, LUCAS

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #247 –
You need to go back and read through this thread.  You also need to search the forums and read through the documentation located here at the Lame wiki page.  In short, joint stereo is a lossless process that actually allows the encoder to perform better.  Many other lossy codecs (I believe Nero AAC and even lossless FLAC) use processes similar to this (or maybe even the same procedure, I am not an expert).  Additionally, you don't want to restrict Lame when it comes to bitrates.  Pick a proper -V value and go with it.  -V 2 is often recommended but many people now feel that -V 3 is a better choice it results in overall lower bitrates while having transparent (ie "CD quality") results.

The best thing that you can do is download foobar2000 and conduct some blind ABX tests to determine what bitrate setting is right for you.  A blind ABX test will force you to ignore the bitrates of the files and hear the quality.  That is what you really want to do.  There is nothing out there that states files encoded between 160 and 224 kbps have the best quality (any place/person that actually says this should be ignored as everyone's preferred quality setting is a little different).  foobar2000 can also convert your FLAC track to mp3 files using Lame while preserving the track tag information.
 

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #248 –
KORNCHILD

I know what's joint stereo, and that it allows better bitrates, I just don't like the idea of not having two clearly separated channels. I'd prefer to use simple stereo and end up with songs bigger in size, I don't care about the difference in size.

As you said I'll conduct some ABX blind tests.
I knew about the lame information here. There's a list that says that lame -V2 is between 170 and 210 kbps, but I ended up with a 270 kbps song.
So, if I'm right, the information in that table is wrong, 270 is way more than 210 kbps.
Is there something I don't know? Or it is supposed to be out of the 170-210kbps range?

Changing the subject, but still with mp3.
FLAC to LAME V4 is the same as FLAC to LAME V2 to LAME V4 ?
LAME 320 CBR to 192 CBR is the same as LAME 320 CBR to LAME 256 CBR to LAME 192 CBR ?

Thanks, LUCAS

[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings

Reply #249 –
If you're encoding rock or metal, you're bitrates will most likely be higher. See this.