Hi,
for car audio I use lame3.96 with "--alt-preset 128 -q 2"

1. abr cause I need to know about file sizes
2. q2 because it should provide better quality as the presets default q3, but still is fast, not like q1/0

Is there something I could do better? I believe lower bitrates will give me some typical metallic noise artifacts on complicated tracks, I'm into electronica, such like Autechre - Gantz Graf, often very complex stuff.

Some people write about 3.90.3 being better than 3.96 in some cases?

No need for switches like q2. If preset 128 isn't enough, try preset medium or standard. 3.96 is better than 3.90.3 one some samples and worse on others - its also quicker and I would stick with it.

I would use -aps in my car stereo too ... that way, I could copy files from my music collection directly on a CDR without re-encoding.

Filesizes are not that important since I know (-aps creates files between 180 and 210 kbps average) that I can fit about 7 hours of music onto one 700 MB CD or 8 hours on one 800 MB CDR ... no need for 12 hours of music here.

Theres need for 12 hrs of music on one cd-rw here:) In this environment with just cheap loudspeakers in the front and very typical 6/9" speakers on rear, ap-128 is really decent, believe me. I believe anything beyond ap-160 is simply overkill. IMO

Well, I would suggest using Lame 3.96 and forgetting about that -q2 parameter.

That would be plain and simple:
--preset 128

Everyone will agree that playing with the -q parameter is not adviced, I think.

OK, thanks ppl. I'm doing

--alt-preset 128
--alt-preset 144
--alt-preset 160

without any switches now. (Depending on how many songs to put on the cdrom)

in the latest 128kbps test, they are using LAME 3.96 with "-V5 --athaa-sensitivity 1" to great effect. It is full VBR around 128kbps and seems to give much better results. That's my recommendation. Don't mess with the -q settings, btw.

-V5 --athaa-sensitivity 1

On a first test, sounds good.Unfortunately consumes more than twice of time on encoding.

On alt-preset-128 and not too complex songs, I can hear like high frequency hissy echo noise in the background. How is this effect called?

I don't know about that effect, but I wanted to point out that any number will work...

For example:
--preset 135

Just so you know, you don't need to stick to the "typical" numbers...

Thanks kblood for clearing that up.
After encoding some complete albums here, -V5 --athaa-sensitivity 1 seems much superior to ap128.

= The bitrate averages at about 128, great.
- Encoding is slower (1.5 vs. 2.6 time/cpu here on a PIII500)
+ Theres kind of hf riging on ap128, much less on V5ats1.

All in all it seems to be a great ~128kbps setting!

The developers of LAME are friggin' geniuses, ain't they? LAME blows me away.

Sorry. I couldn't help myself.



- Scott

BTW instead of using --preset 160 I'll rather use --preset medium.