Which LAME VBR settings do you use?, Poll regarding LAME VBR preferences Options

[Synthetic Soul]

Following memomai's thread on the subject, a poll regarding your LAME VBR habits.

NB: If you use -V5.5, choose the "-V5 (.XXX)" option.

If you don't use VBR, don't bother contributing; this poll is for LAME VBR users only.

This post has been edited by Synthetic Soul: Oct 21 2008, 19:15

[Bodhi]

V5
3.98.2
No floating point

(Since today...)

This post has been edited by Bodhi: Oct 20 2008, 18:42

[memomai]

thanks Synthetic_Soul, perfect poll!

[zipr]

I use 3.98.2 with V2. I probably could get by with a higher setting, but don't have the time to ABX and find out what the best setting would be for me...

[xmixahlx]

3.98.2 + -V2

[Neasden]

-V 0 (excessive but this is my comfort zone)
LAME 3.98.2 (higher bitrates, longer changelog against 3.97)
No floating point (too complicated)

[skelly831]

3.98.2, -V 5, no floating point values, keep it simple amigos

[/mnt]

Am still using V2, since V0 sometimes only does some minor improvements; but most of time V0 does solve my problems though. Also still using LAME 3.97, since i find regression issues are more common with 3.98.2 at V2. I even had to encode a box set with 3.90.3, since I found about 2 tracks on the first disc that was not transparent with 3.97 (even at V0) and a track was not transparent with 3.98.2, but sound fine to me with 3.90.3 at APS.

Anyway if I have to move to higher bitrate, I would use V1 over V0 since V1 is effective with only a 30kbps increase, IMO theres no difference between those settings most of the time. I have even been thinking of using V3, since on some of my personal test I find to only sound only a tad worse on tracks that are not transparent at V2.

[Slipstreem]

Voted! 3.98.2 at -V3 with no floating point usage here. I do appreciate good encodings, but I'm not mega-fussy to be honest so integer values suit me fine.

Thanks to memomai for kicking this off and to Synthetic Soul for setting up the poll. Good job!

Cheers, Slipstreem.

[Alexxander]

I use v3.98.2, -V2 for my "mobile music" (in car deck and on my Sandisk Sansa with rockbox) but most probably will switch to -V3 (I have to do some more abx-tests). For my family I encode to -V4 because they don't know about artifacts and don't identify them.

Edit: I voted -V2 and I don't using floating point, I like things to be as simple as possible. For more bitrate control we have ABR.

This post has been edited by Alexxander: Oct 20 2008, 21:02

[mr budzone]

I actually went from -V5 to V5.7 on my portable, I dont really believe I hear any difference in the enviroments i listen in =)

This post has been edited by mr budzone: Oct 20 2008, 21:20

[lvqcl]

3.98.2, -V 2.

Winamp, foobar2000, CDex... They all allow to use floating-point values with, say, Vorbis but not with LAME.

[houyhnhnm]

V2, 3.98.2, no floating point values.

• 2004
• 2005
• 2006
• 2007

Standard is standard...

I think you'd need to start a new topic. If you do, bear in mind that the value is now floating point, so you may need to use options like "-V2(.X)", rather than "-V2". or maybe ask people to round their value to the nearest integer. A separate question asking if anyone is actually using a floating point value may be interesting...

I've got no rights to start a poll.

I think anyone can make a poll.

[twostar]

I voted 3.98.2 and -V2.

Just a sidenote, the last time there was a similar poll, -V2 was the leading choice.

This post has been edited by twostar: Oct 20 2008, 23:32

[kornchild2002]

I chose -V 3 with Lame 3.98.2 and no floating point values. I have since migrated down from -V 2 with 3.97 and can now fit about 25 extra songs on a 700MB CD-RW disc and about 500 extra songs on a 16GB device. All-in-all, I have been please with 3.98's (and 3.98.2's) encoding results and now see no need in using a high bitrate setting like -V 2.

[memomai]

I voted 3.98.2 and -V2.

Just a sidenote, the last time there was a similar poll, -V2 was the leading choice.

This poll was for lame 3.97 not 3.98(.2)

[Synthetic Soul]

Thanks for the links to other polls, it will be interesting to compare the results. I did have a quick look, but couldn't find them.

I voted early on, but I guess I should post my preferences:

• -V5
• 3.98.2
• No

I've been using -V5 for quite a while now, since guruboolez posted some favourable results (with the 3.97 betas I think). At the time many members were using -V2/--alt-preset standard or -V0/--alt-preset extreme, and I felt quite inadequate. Since then we have had listening tests proving that the setting is transparent to many people, which makes me feel a little better about my hearing. I'm just happy that I can squeeze more on my pathetic 1GB Nano.

NB: I have tried testing the first three samples in the current ~128kbps listening test and I just cannot tell any difference. I'm not sure I even found the low anchor on one.

[melomaniac]

V2, 3.98.2, no floating point values.

• 2004
• 2005
• 2006
• 2007

Standard is standard...

At the moment (210 votes), you can see that more and more people are using other presets than V2. I'm not sure if we can still call it a "standard" in 2008.

I've been using -V5 for quite a while now, since guruboolez posted some favourable results (with the 3.97 betas I think). At the time many members were using -V2/--alt-preset standard or -V0/--alt-preset extreme, and I felt quite inadequate. Since then we have had listening tests proving that the setting is transparent to many people, which makes me feel a little better about my hearing.

You exactly summarize my thinking Synthetic Soul.
I've followed Guru's listening tests for years (also en français) with great interest too.

This post has been edited by melomaniac: Nov 2 2008, 12:31

[david.lisb]

-V0 -b224

best quality !!

[PHOYO]

-V0 -b224

best quality !!

No, the best quality setting is -b 320.

Your command line just breaks VBR.

[.halverhahn]

Version: Lame 3.98.2
Music: V0
Audio Book, Radio Play, Comedy: V2
Portable: V5
Floating Point: Sometimes

This post has been edited by .halverhahn: Oct 21 2008, 11:38

[david.lisb]

ABR 270 was my favorite, but now: -V0 -b224: the quality of preset extreme without the problem of VBR

[bug80]

version: 3.98.2
portable: V4

[Lyx]

Using V3, because i don't keep a lossless backup, yet i consider the V2 overkill and being affected by SFB21 bloat. I do not expect my music to be "perfect" - i just want any issues to be rare and non-annoying in severity.

This post has been edited by Lyx: Oct 21 2008, 11:41

[kornchild2002]

ABR 270 was my favorite, but now: -V0 -b224: the quality of preset extreme without the problem of VBR

Don't want to go off-topic but why would VBR be a problem? Lame was tuned for VBR encoding and forcing a minimum bitrate like you have only limits the encoder and can cause decreased quality.

I wonder who voted for 3.90.3 as that is rather old and I thought it was no longer recommended after 3.97b1 came out.