about a month ago i started using CDEX and am very pleased with it (except for some VBR file variations but that's another thread) i use the LAME encoder that is packaged with that software. it's fairly simple to use except that there are a few options i quite don't understand.........for example: the stereo, joint stereo, etc. option.
wat are the diffs in the two. the cdex help manual explains them a bit, but i need more simpler terms. forgive the ignorance but i am an avid music(quality)lover and i want the best sounding mp3's i can encode without making them astronomical in size(over192kbs)
if there are any links to these questions or if any of you have any ideas, please lemme know. thanx!

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Please, try to use search. This is one of the most common questions:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=7516
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=13726
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=15024
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=12590
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=12206
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=10662
etc.etc.

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Theres a sticky at the top of this forum with everything you need to know. Heres a link to it:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/show.php/showtopic/203

Anyway you don't need to mess with LAME switches, they're included for testing and so that LAME can be customized for very specific situations. In general people shouldn't use them though because you'll get worse quality and/or bigger files.

As for joint stereo, its used in LAME's presets when appropriate. Its nice because it drastically reduces the size of stereo files which allows LAME more bits for other things.