Ultra Low Bitrates (REALLY!), 22khz Mono at 16kbps Options

[Freya]

I'm encoding at around 16kbps/24kbps in Mono at 22khz. I'm trying to achieve something like FM radio quality.
Sometimes I get close...

I've tried lame VBR with maxbitrate and more recently have tried ABR but I'm not sure the VBR wasn't better?

Does anyone have any tips on how I can improve my encodes in Lame? Should I add a highpass filter? What do others think of ABR vs VBR? I know ABR is recommended for low bitrates...

I know this is really far away from the usual Lame stuff but I hope people might be able to help a bit anyway!

love

Freya

[AndyH-ha]

I've done many audiobooks with this. It isn't a standard LAME setting but my results sound quite good to me and a few other people who use them. Occasionally the sound is a little different than the original source but not enough to bother me. Music isn't the same, however, but there is little music in most audio books and I would not care if what is there wasn't.

I haven't updated anything is quite some time, so the vbr-new might not be appropriate with a newer version of LAME.
-V 8 --vbr-new -m m --resample 22 --lowpass 11