lame3100h, a functional extension Options

[halb27]

You can download it from here.

What’s the functional extension?

It offers additional VBR quality settings -V5+ to -V0+ which cover the average bitrate range from ~144 to ~300 kbps (for a variety of pop music):

-V5+     144 kbps
-V4.5+  160 kbps
-V4+     176 kbps
-V3.5+  192 kbps
-V3+     208 kbps
-V2+     224 kbps
-V1.5+  240 kbps
-V1+     256 kbps
-V0.5+  278 kbps
-V0+     300 kbps

An alternative way to use the functional extension is --brV+ x, where x is the average bitrate (for a variety of pop music) you want to use. You can use for instance --brV+ 224 instead of -V2+.

What is it good for?

Lame’s moderate VBR quality settings like -V5 or -V4 usually yield a very good quality. That’s why many users are happy with these settings. Sometimes however tracks contain spots which are not encoded well. Many users want a better quality also for these rather rare events. From current experience Lame3.100 alpha2 seems to scale well quality of tonal problems with -Vn level, but temporal resolution can still be an issue.

-Vn+ uses -Vn as the encoding basis, but adds a certain amount of brute-force safety by forcing audio data bitrate to a target bitrate which depends on -Vn+ level. Moreover care is taken to always provide maximum possible audio data space for the encoding of short blocks which are used when the encoder thinks it is appropriate for a good temporal resolution. Also Lame's default lowpass is lowered a bit in order to make best use of the encoded bits (use --lowpass x if you don't like this).

Emphasis is on issues with temporal resolution, but tonal problems are tackled as well.

In a sense -Vn+ combines the quality advantages of both VBR and CBR.

Recommendations

Users who care much about filesize and are content with the functional extension improving short block (pre-echo) behavior, can use -V5+ to -V4+.

Users who don’t like rather obvious issues in their music even when they’re rare but who also care about filesize are best to choose from -V3.5+ to -V1.5+ according to their needs.
For a significant potential for improving tonal issues -V3+ or better is recommended.

Users who don’t care much about filesize but much more about universal top quality are best served by using -V1+ or V0+, or anything in between.

Installation

lame3100h.exe was compiled with Visual C++ 2010. For this reason it is necessary to install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package vcredist_x86.exe. You can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8328

lame3100h.exe uses the fast and lossless mp3packer tool internally to squeeze the otherwise unused bits out of the mp3 file. You can download mp3packer from http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....st&p=282289. Put mp3packer.exe into the same folder where lame3100h.exe is located. Many thanks to Omion for this great tool.
In case there is no mp3packer.exe in lame3100h.exe’s folder lame3100h.exe will work, but the mp3 files will be somewhat larger than necessary.

This post has been edited by halb27: Dec 18 2012, 01:27

[Kamedo2]

Sorry, I forgot to delete past mp3s and the results were a combination of
lame3100h -brV%v %i %o
lame3100h --brV+ %v %i %o
The only 144-300 section is the result of --brV+ %v.

CODE

lame3100h --brV+ %v %i %o
144 143518
145 150712
146 151222
147 151723
148 152186
149 152730
150 153276
151 153857
152 154381
153 154908
154 155439
155 156028
156 156618
157 157186
158 157809
159 158478
160 159543
161 160236
162 160974
163 161754
164 162568
165 163390
166 164271
167 165197
168 166145
169 167159
170 168224
171 169293
172 170447
173 171554
174 172759
175 173987
176 175258
177 176207
178 177174
179 178172
180 179124
181 180137
182 181121
183 182142
184 183136
185 184107
186 185079
187 186076
188 187113
189 188099
190 189082
191 190092
192 191156
193 192105
194 193085
195 194026
196 194903
197 195916
198 196857
199 197721
200 198653
201 199644
202 200595
203 201577
204 202464
205 203397
206 204396
207 205374
208 206293
209 208505
210 209517
211 210492
212 211328
213 212258
214 213229
215 214046
216 215058
217 216060
218 216894
219 217896
220 218912
221 219829
222 220857
223 221780
224 222684
225 223693
226 224617
227 225739
228 226710
229 227728
230 228821
231 229792
232 230682
233 231673
234 232697
235 233665
236 234751
237 235687
238 236712
239 237782
240 239031
241 240096
242 241108
243 242169
244 243188
245 244241
246 245264
247 246268
248 246957
249 247980
250 249062
251 250053
252 251081
253 252074
254 253103
255 254140
256 254897
257 255971

By the way, I prefer the --brV+ 320 to be redirected to --brV+ 300, meaning -V0+, because the 320 kBit/s bitrate selection box on EAC V1.0b3 can be used without errors.

[BFG]

By the way, I prefer the --brV+ 320 to be redirected to --brV+ 300, meaning -V0+, because the 320 kBit/s bitrate selection box on EAC V1.0b3 can be used without errors.

Personally, I would prefer that --brV+ 320 actually aim for ~320kbps, or result in an error code, rather than be redirected. But this is a simple preference.