Suggest ~160kbps VBR setting. Options

[guidryp]

Hi,

Looking at the suggested settings/presets I am dismayed at the lack of a VBR setting that operates at a lower bit-rate.

There is APS standard, which on my music easily averages over 200Kbps. In fact my latest Rush albums are averaging over 220Kbps.

I can see noisy metal taking over 220kbps, but a song like Rush-Nobody's Hero taking 230Kbps?

For me, it calls into question the validity of the VBR model if the answer to lower than 230KBps encoding is to use the ABR/CBR settings.

ABR doesn't seem much better than CBR after watching it encode 90+ % of its samples at the target rate.

Surely a VBR setting can be cooked up that can encode the above track at ~160kbps in VBR and still sound better than 160 ABR.

PS - I want to use this setting in my compact Flash based portable, in my car etc. My max space average is 160Kbps do to the size of the portable memory. But I want the best quality in that space.

Peter

[guidryp]

Originally posted by mithrandir

If you need 160kbps, then use --alt-preset 160. I don't know why you want to dwell on VBR. ABR uses variable framesizes, so it won't "waste" bits or underallocate on some frames like CBR. ABR makes a whole lot of sense if you have a final bitrate in mind.
.

I guess I am more representative of the average listener than the majority in these forums. My goal is not necessarily transparency buy non-offensive compression. I want the best size/quality tradeoff with the emphasis on size.

We have a pool of MP3's at work, mine are ripped with APS-standard. Some are from the net with 128 CBR, the rest are a friends DLL based lame VBR setting of some sort that yields about 140 kbps on average.

I set a giant playlist and let em rip randomly. The 128 CBRs grate me even when I am not paying attention. The VBR'd 140kbps are fine 90% of the time, 10% have easily noticeable artifacts. My APS standards are perfect. But average about 210Kbps.

I would like something in between the 140 kbps and 210 kbps, but closer to 140 kbps, since I also want to use them in a portable with limited space. The best use of bits which gives something that gives good casual listening.

If I can tolerate the non optimised ~140 kbps lame dll based encoding 90% of the time. I figured a ~160 kbps tweaked/optimised exe version should move it up to 98% or better.

I would prefer VBR, since in theory it has the potential to offer the best bang for the bit. It still seems wastefull to me to use CBR or very similar ABR settings.

-Y is a real possibility. While I can hear 20k on frequency sweep, I don't know if I can hear the difference of a 16k cutoff in music.

I will have to wait until my good computer (fast with spdif out) returns before I do some testing.

Peter