Hello!

I just started using EAC+LAME. But now a few questions about the LAME-settings occured while exploring this forum.

Firstly it seems to be quite difficult to use LAME with a combination of single parameters. Does anybody knows a page, where I can find a description of all parameters (I'm just interested)?

But let's stick to the easier preset-settings (should be more appropiate for a beginner ):
1. The presets "standard" - "extreme": Is this vbr or abr?
2. In the thread about the recommended LAME settings, all presets are explained to encode with cbr and abr. But why there are no presets to encode in vbr?

And, well, can somebody try to explain the difference between vbr and abr in one sentence? Would be great...


Oh, I'm using LAME 3.90.3, if this is of any interest...

you can see all the LAME options explained when you start LAME with the parameter --longhelp.
--alt-preset standard and extreme are true vbr presets.
abr is vbr but tries to match the bitrate you specified.

-andy-

1. standard and extreme are vbr.
insane is cbr.
2. see 1. and because abr is often better at lower bitrates. You can add "-Y" to the vbr presets to get a little lower bitrate.

Look in the wiki for info on
ABR and CBR.

The --alt-presets aren't just appropriate for beginners, they're highly recommended for everyone.

--alt-preset standard and --alt-preset extreme are both VBR quality-based settings for LAME. --aps gives about 200kbps on average, while --ape does an average of about 240kbps (these averages depend on the type of music, though).

The recommended LAME settings cover all modes of operation, CBR, ABR and VBR. --alt-preset standard and --alt-preset extreme are VBR, as is --alt-preset medium, as well as the "fast" variants of these settings.

--alt-preset nnn (e.g., --alt-preset 128) is how to denote an ABR setting.

--alt-preset cbr nnn (e.g., --alt-preset cbr 128) is how to denote a CBR setting.

Don't try messing with other options like the lowpass, psychoacoustic model variants, or stereo modes. Just accept the defaults of the presets. Much effort was put into these presets to be sure they provide maximum sound quality for their respective nominal bitrates.

OK, so when I want wo get e.g. a 200 abr, then I can use "--alt-preset 200".

But what I have to use when I want to get a 200 vbr? Is that just impossible with the presets?

VBR is a modus where you don't specify a target bitrate, your "200 vbr" would be "200 abr".

Exactly



You can`t.

ABR modes are designed to give you the best possible quality that match your specified bitrate. Any kind of music encoded with ABR results in the same bitrate, but you'll find that some songs sound to you better than others (because they are easier to encode)

VBR modes are desgined to give you an specific quality (a very good one) regardless of the kind of music you are enconding. Thus, different songs will have different final bitrate, but you are sure that the quality will be great. For Lame preset standard the bitrates are usually between 150 and 250 kbps, being 200 kbps the AVERAGE.

You can see ABR as "Do your best, but I want all my songs at bitrate XXX" and VBR as "Do you best to give me a great (constant) quality. I don't mind about the resulting bitrates"

Ah, now I understand...

Then all questions are answered.

Thanx to all people helping!