[Discussion] List of recommended LAME settings, V2 (for LAME 3.97) Options

[beowulf7]

OK, I just ran lame from the command line for the first time. Previously, I used to encode my music as CBR via the LAME plug-in that I have for GoldWave. Anyway, here's the output. Can someone help me interpret what LR and MS mean? Thanks.

C:\Program Files\LAME>lame -V 2 --vbr-new "<directory_path\file_name.wav>" "<directory_path\file_name.mp3>"
LAME version 3.96.1 (http://lame.sourceforge.net/)
CPU features: MMX (ASM used), 3DNow! (ASM used), SSE, SSE2
Using polyphase lowpass filter, transition band: 18671 Hz - 19205 Hz
Encoding <directory_path\file_name.wav>
to <directory_path\file_name.mp3>
Encoding as 44.1 kHz VBR(q=2) j-stereo MPEG-1 Layer III (ca. 7.3x) qval=3
Frame | CPU time/estim | REAL time/estim | play/CPU | ETA
167050/167052(100%)| 4:42/ 4:42| 4:42/ 4:42| 15.447x| 0:00
32 [ 31] *
128 [ 2564] %***
160 [ 16901] %%*******************
192 [ 43138] %%%%%%%***********************************************
224 [ 53440] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%***************************************************
256 [ 35980] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%***************************
320 [ 14999] %%%%%%%%%%%%*******
average: 223.3 kbps LR: 42165 (25.24%) MS: 124888 (74.76%)

Writing LAME Tag...done
ReplayGain: -7.7dB

C:\Program Files\LAME>

[stephanV]

Can I use the recommended settings for LAME 3.97 that's stickied in this forum for my LAME 3.96.1?

You can use anything you want, but its not recommended.

Can someone help me interpret what LR and MS mean?

Left-Right stereo and Mid-Side stereo. Two different ways of representing stereo sound, sometimes one is more effiecient than the other.

This post has been edited by stephanV: Oct 27 2005, 08:20

[user]

suggestion: I don't see any mention of encoding audio books/speeches/mono sources. I tried several versions in the 3.93 days of vbr, abr and cbr with different settings, sampling frequencies, low pass filters etc. and could never match --preset-voice. It sounds awesome and gives about 25x compression. I'd like to see this setting in the guide.

Is there such a preset working in 3.97b1 ?
Does it deliver the best for the goal/bitrate ?
of course, then it belongs to the recommended settings.
Can you give the necessary informations regarding averaged bitrates, if it is mono or not ?

[Gabriel]

--preset voice is only available in the command line front-end, and is there for compatibility.
It is currently mapped to --abr 56 -mm, so that means that the recommendation would be to encode in mono, and use abr. As simple as that.

[beowulf7]

Can I use the recommended settings for LAME 3.97 that's stickied in this forum for my LAME 3.96.1?

You can use anything you want, but its not recommended.

OK, haha, you're right, I can use anything I guess. But what would the recommended settings be for LAME 3.96.1 to be roughly equivalent to 3.97's -V2 setting? Thanks.

Can someone help me interpret what LR and MS mean?

Left-Right stereo and Mid-Side stereo. Two different ways of representing stereo sound, sometimes one is more effiecient than the other.

Thanks, that makes sense. I guess it's for statistical purposes only, and to me, the #s dont' mean much until I can compare it with other compressions.

[stephanV]

Lame 3.96.1 also has the -V setting right? So use -V 2 or -V 3 (whatever fits your bit rate needs better) and be happy

[Pearson]

This is quoted from the 'Quick Start' section of the "List of recommended LAME settings" thread:

Very low bitrate, small sizes: eg. for voice, radio, mono encoding etc.
--abr xx (e.g. --abr 80)

Shouldn't there be a suggested setting for mono encoding in "High Quality" as well? There are good mono recordings that would be served by a HQ mono setting. From the recommendation above it sounds as if mono should be encoded with abr.

In the old days I think there was some kind of (albeit weak) consensus that -m m -b 80 could be added to the old --preset standard setting for mono encoding. Does this work OK with 3.97 as well?

[guruboolez]

In the old days I think there was some kind of (albeit weak) consensus that -m m -b 80 could be added to the old --preset standard setting for mono encoding. Does this work OK with 3.97 as well?

-b80 is not necessary anymore with -vbr-new mode. But with the other VBR mode, I think that -b128 is still here by default. Therefore, -b80 should be worth.



EDIT: typo.

This post has been edited by guruboolez: Nov 1 2005, 01:15

[Pearson]

Thanks for the clarification!

[LiTEMaTTeR]

In lame 3.97b does it store the setting used like the lame 3.90.3 modified compile did? In other words, if -V 2 = APS will the lameheader file indicate V2/APS was used somewhere?

On a diff note if V2 = APS on this compile then why do they get different bitrate avgs?

[Jojo]

In lame 3.97b does it store the setting used like the lame 3.90.3 modified compile did? In other words, if -V 2 = APS will the lameheader file indicate V2/APS was used somewhere?

yes, this fuction was introduced in one of the recent lame releases and was backported to the old and unefficient Lame 3.90.3 release.

On a diff note if V2 = APS on this compile then why do they get different bitrate avgs?

no, --preset standard and -V2 produces the exact same file (therefore same bitrate).

This post has been edited by Jojo: Nov 3 2005, 08:13

[burnett_s]

Hi everybody,

By default, ReplayGain analysis is enabled afaik it is not compatible with foobar's RG tag and portable mp3 players. So, wouldn't be better to add --noreplaygain to the command line to disable ReplayGain analysis and prevent LAME from applying gain to each track individually instead of to the album as a whole ?
Encoding a live or mixed album track by track, not as an image, with this command line option enabled isn't such a good idea, isn't it?

ReplayGain disabled: -V2 --vbr-new --noreplaygain

EAC's command line with replaygain disabled:

CODE

-V 2 --vbr-new --noreplaygain  --ignore-tag-errors --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" --tg "%m" %s %d

Please correct me if I'm wrong

Greetings

EDIT: typo

This post has been edited by burnett_s: Nov 5 2005, 08:52

[Madrigal]

Hi everybody,

By default, ReplayGain analysis is enabled afaik it is not compatible with foobar's RG tag and portable mp3 players. So, wouldn't be better to add --noreplaygain to the command line to disable ReplayGain analysis and prevent LAME from applying gain to each track individually instead of to the album as a whole ?
Encoding a live or mixed album track by track, not as an image, with this command line option enabled isn't such a good idea, isn't it? 

ReplayGain disabled: -V2 --vbr-new --noreplaygain

EAC's command line with replaygain disabled:

CODE

-V 2 --vbr-new --noreplaygain  --ignore-tag-errors --add-id3v2 --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" --tg "%m" %s %d

Please correct me if I'm wrong

Greetings

EDIT: typo

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought LAME's replaygain analysis was for screen display only, during operation, and had nothing at all to do with applying gain to the tracks themselves. I have confirmed this to myself several times, using Mp3Gain.

That said, use of the --noreplaygain switch can still be useful. In my case at least, it speeds up the encoding process considerably.

Regards,
Madrigal

[kjoonlee]

RG metadata is written to the LAME/INFO tag. The only program that I know of that uses that info is Otachan's in_mpg123.

[Gabriel]

It is also used by Madplay.

[Madrigal]

@kjoonlee & Gabriel:

Thanks for the clarification.

Regards,
Madrigal

[beowulf7]

Now that I'm using LAME 3.97 beta (despite my paranoia of beta software), I'm wondering if it's worth using --preset extreme (VBR) over --preset standard (VBR). In a double-blind test, is the slight difference in quality discernable by a good pair of ears? Thanks.

This post has been edited by beowulf7: Nov 6 2005, 19:12

[user]

Great, Lame 3.97b2 has come out,
from changelog, it seems obvious to me, to recommend it instead of 3.97b1.

[Shade[ST]]

Now that I'm using LAME 3.97 beta (despite my paranoia of beta software), I'm wondering if it's worth using --preset extreme (VBR) over --preset standard (VBR).  In a double-blind test, is the slight difference in quality discernable by a good pair of ears?  Thanks.

to make a quick answer, probably not, but you can check yourself.

[VCSkier]

for me v2 is transparent on all but a very few, extreme problem samples... i dont recall which ones at the moment, but in real music situations, i have yet to find a sample that i can abx.

[Echizen]

For me V3 is almost transparent and it gives a good balance between quality and file size.

This post has been edited by Echizen: Nov 28 2005, 21:42

[beowulf7]

Great, Lame 3.97b2 has come out,
from changelog, it seems obvious to me, to recommend it instead of 3.97b1.

You're right. But I'd still like official recommendation from this forum before I upgrade the encoder. LAME 3.98 is also in its alpha 2 state, but who knows when it will hit beta.

[burnett_s]

Great, Lame 3.97b2 has come out,
from changelog, it seems obvious to me, to recommend it instead of 3.97b1.

You're right. But I'd still like official recommendation from this forum before I upgrade the encoder. LAME 3.98 is also in its alpha 2 state, but who knows when it will hit beta.

IMHO, official recommendation should be updated to use LAME 3.97 beta 2 instead of beta 1 as the recommended LAME encoder version.

Gr.
Gonzalo

[beowulf7]

Great, Lame 3.97b2 has come out,
from changelog, it seems obvious to me, to recommend it instead of 3.97b1.

You're right. But I'd still like official recommendation from this forum before I upgrade the encoder. LAME 3.98 is also in its alpha 2 state, but who knows when it will hit beta.

IMHO, official recommendation should be updated to use LAME 3.97 beta 2 instead of beta 1 as the recommended LAME encoder version.

Gr.
Gonzalo

I PM'd "user" about it, so hopefully he'll update the first post of the thread and that someone will change the link from that 3rd sticky in this forum.

[JayShoemaker]

You can add Tag&Rename to the Tagging Software section...

Very good software!

http://www.softpointer.com/tr.htm