Major update since Lame 3.97

(link to the previous content of this thread "List of recommended MP3 settings" for Lame 3.90.3)


Discussion has been moved here or here.
Do NOT reply in this thread, instead use above discussion threads !


See also Hydrogenaudio's official Wiki for more information.


Last update 2006-10-02 13:11 UTC


Suggestions, improvements please to the discussion thread, or PM/eMail.
To avoid doubled & tripled work, I edit myself, unless, I should be away for longer.


Contents:

# Introduction, MP3/Lame version & download
# Best MP3/Lame settings for given bitrates & ranges
# Quickstart & Remarks
# 1 step: Copy a CD & compress to MP3 & tag with EAC
# Useful Links
# Credits




# Introduction:

This Post offers everything you need, to give a quick start with MP3, including copying CD & compressing to MP3 in highest possible qualities.
Target is always highest possible quality under given circumstances like target bitrate range or usage.

So we only deal with the famous MP3-Encoder LAME, because LAME offers best quality of all MP3-Encoders, even better than eg. the Fraunhofer MP3-Encoder.


These settings require LAME 3.94 or later. LAME 3.97 found on following websites is the recommended version:
Check Rarewares or here to download.
Do not use alpha (a) versions! Those are for testing purposes, if you want to help developers with feedback. History of Lame versions & compiles.


All modes and settings mentioned in this topic belong to the specifications of the MP3 standard, and the resulting MP3s should be played by every standard-conform MP3-Decoder. If this shouldn't be the case, blame the manufacturer or developer of your MP3-Decoder/device.

Neither the hydrogenaudio.org community, HA staff, nor the authors of this post take any responsibility for anything.



# Recommended encoder settings:

At a given bitrate range, the quality scale is following: VBR is higher quality than ABR which is higher quality than CBR (VBR > ABR > CBR in terms of quality). The exception to this is when you choose the highest possible CBR bitrate, which is 320 kbps (-b 320 = --alt-preset insane).

VBR = Variable Bitrate Mode: the goal is to keep a constant quality, and saving bits where possible without lowering the quality. Size is less predictable than with ABR, but the quality is usually better.
ABR = Average Bitrate Mode: varies bits around a specified target bitrate
CBR = Constant Bitrate Mode: is not efficient regarding distributing bitrate to more complex music parts, and saving bits where it would be possible without lowering the quality of those music parts.



The settings, presets are listed beginning with highest possible quality (-b 320) stepping down to lower qualities:



If the target is eg. streaming, where you need MP3 in ABR or even CBR mode, there are still the ABR and CBR modes.
You can specify your desired target bitrate:


ABR = Average Bitrate Mode:
--abr xxx ( = --preset xxx )
xxx (desired averaged bitrate in kbit/s) can be any value between 8 - 320, like eg. 9, 17, 80, 128, 133, 200, etc.


CBR = Constant Bitrate Mode:
-b xxx ( = --preset cbr xxx )
xxx (bitrate in kbit/s) can be only: 8 , 16 , 24 , 32 , 40 , 48 , 64 , 80 , 96 , 112 , 128 , 160 , 192 , 256 or 320
CBR is recommended only for usage in streaming situations where the upper bitrate margin must be strictly enforced.








# Quick Start:


Best Quality: archiving
-b 320 - This is the strongest setting for MP3, with the lowest risk of artifacts.
With the exception of a few situations, quality is rarely better than the highest VBR profiles described below.
Alternative: Lossless formats like WavPack, Flac etc allow true archiving bit for bit like on original CD.


High Quality: HiFi, home or quiet listening
-V 3 --vbr-new (~175 kbps), -V 2 --vbr-new (~190 kbps), -V 1 --vbr-new (~210 kbps) or -V 0 --vbr-new (~230 kbps) are recommended.
These settings will produce transparent encoding (transparent = most people cannot distinguish the mp3 from the original in an ABX blindtest).
Audible differences between these presets exist, but are extremely marginal.


Portable: background noise and low bitrate requirement, small sizes
-V6 --vbr-new (~115 kbps), -V5 --vbr-new (~130 kbps) or -V4 --vbr-new (~160 kbps) are recommended for this use.
-V6 --vbr-new produces an acceptable quality, while -V4--vbr-new should be close to perceptual transparency.


Very low bitrate, small sizes: eg. for voice, radio, mono encoding etc.
--abr xx (e.g. --abr 80)
For very low bitrates, up to 100kbps, ABR is most often the best solution.
--preset voice is only available in the command line front-end, and is there for compatibility.
It is currently mapped to --abr 56 -mm, so that means that the recommendation would be to encode in mono, and use ABR.





# Remarks:


The --vbr-new switch enables the new VBR mode:

LAME will encode much faster compared to old/default vbr mode. Current knowledge qualitywise comparing vbr with --vbr-new is, that --vbr-new might even be better qualitywise than the default vbr mode, but there are also reports about artefact, which is worse in --vbr-new compared to default. The general impression is, that --vbr-new should be recommended over vbr-default. --vbr-new can be faster and at equal/better quality at same time, because it uses a different algorithm than old/default vbr mode.

-mm : the sound will be encoded in mono. Eg. useful for low bitrates & when stereo is less important.

About the old --alt-preset system:

The revolutionary --alt-preset system introduced in LAME 3.90, is replaced nowadays by the preset system, (which is already substituted by the above explained settings -V x system). You don't need to worry anymore about quality, settings, switches, presets. If you stick to the recommendations of this topic, all will be fine and perfectly optimized. If you select nowadays in LAME 3.97 either --alt-preset xy , preset xy or corresponding switch xy, you will always get the same. Simply stick to one of the recommended switches of the table or described here in the text.
E.G.: --alt-preset cbr 320 is the exact same thing as --alt-preset insane,
--preset insane, -b 320, etc.


Click here to view how the perceived listening quality improves with settings/averaged filesize









# Setting up EAC for LAME.exe with tagging:

Based on Case's tutorial

Select compression options from EAC menu.
Open 'External Compression' tab.

1. Check 'Use external program for compression'
2. Change 'Parameter passing scheme' to 'User Defined Encoder'
3. Set file extension to .mp3
4. Click 'Browse' and locate 'LAME.exe'
5. Change 'Additional command line options' to one of the following commandlines
6. Check 'Delete WAV after compression'
7. Uncheck 'Add ID3 tag'


These commandlines are generally recommended over EAC's own tagging routines and its LAME encoder parameter passing preset, which is known to cause problems.
The bitrate setting serves a cosmetic purpose and is used for the size display in EAC's main window.





# Useful Links:


(Latest LAME compiles)
Wiki download page
Rarewares MP3 page
Dmitry's compiles


(MP3 Information sites)
Hydrogen Audio
Hydrogen Audio MP3 forum
Dekoder Test by David Robinson, link broken, who can give valid url ?



(Exact Audio Copy - the best CD ripper & encoding (& tagging) to MP3 (or other formats like Lossless, MPC, Ogg Vorbis etc.) during ripping)
Offizielle Seite
Classic Tutorial for EAC
EAC Forum
The High-Quality Audio & EAC Tutorials
The Essential Audio & EAC Guide


(LAME Frontends)
All2Lame All2Lame is recommended instead of Razorlame or Easylame
Foobar2000 : Foobar2k is not only a Lame GUI, but an all-in-one Audio solution, a Player, which is also a replacement for eg. Winamp or Windows Media Player.
HeadAC3he by Dark Avenger : (5.1) ac3 -> wav DS2 -> mp3, ogg vorbis, mp2
BeSweet by DSPGuru : (5.1) ac3 -> wav DS2 -> mp3, ogg vorbis, mp2 with batch-possibility


(Renaming / ID3 Tagging / Music Database)
Tag + Tag Frontend
Helium2
Renatager
MPTagger
More tagging information & programs
CDIndexer : for CD-Audio & data-CDs
MAC: Mpeg Audio Collection 2.92
MAC 2.93


(MP3 Gain - lossless gain change / "normalizing"!)
Official site
Basic Guide to avoid clipping


(How to)
Burn MP3 CD
Burrrn
Reencode mp3 (high bitrate with ID3 tags) to mp3 (low bitrate) and include tags to new mp3 file : Try Monkeys Audio http://www.monkeysaudio.com/, or better: foobar 2000, use the CLI encoder: http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/html/foobar.html
Foobar basic guide at www.High-Quality.ch.vu
MPC -> MP3 by MPCxchange


(Analyzing MP3)
Mr QuestionMan
EncSpot
ff123's artefact training
Tool for ABXing, Blind listening tests
ff123's site: Discussion of Audio Compression including sites to evaluate your own capability of listening
Training of musically listening good-ear.com
Training of listening to encoder's artefacts pcabx.com
MP3Utility
QuickSFV, SVF and MD5 checksums for files





# Credits:

A big thanks to all LAME developers for making one kickass MP3 codec.

People who took part in suggesting the different settings:
Dibrom, r3mix, ff123, Hans Heijden, kjempen, Benjamin Lebsanft, GeSomeone, Wombat & GuruBoolez for their immense testing.

Creation of the alt preset system and related special code level quality enhancements:
Dibrom, with technical assistance from Robert Hegemann and Naoki Shibata; Gabriel and extensive tuning help and quality verification via listening tests from JohnV and also initial help (--dm-preset era) from Hans Heijden, ff123, Wombat, and others. Test clips, bitrate information, and further listening tests provided by TheBashar, zbutsam, Pio2001, BadDuDeX, r3mix, h, TarX, Hans Heijden, ff123, Wombat, Filburt, Volcano, Garf, MrDrew, TrNSZ, nyaochi, Amadeus93, in no particular order, and many, many others we (Dibrom, user) probably forgot to mention.. (PM me to be added, or if you know somebody, who should be added)

Idea (also exposing the need for a unified preset system), Original post and list of original settings collected by: user
Layout and additional work by: dev0, CiTay, SNYder, Dibrom,

And finally...

Thank you ALL in the community for making it what it is, providing interest and discussion and helping to work towards the most concise, well tuned, and most thought out MP3 quality "paradigm" seen yet!

History:

lightyears before: 1st Topic at old r3mix forum to collect best MP3-Lame settings for given bitrates & ranges.
The specific settings were long and contained several special Lame switches.

revolutionary updates: the dm-preset era was followed by --alt-preset era,
some time the r3mix forum lived parallel to the new Project Mayhem.

Project Mayhem went www.Audio-Illumination.org which went www.HydrogenAudio.org

time till Septembre, 2005: Lame 3.90.x

Septembre, 2005: Lame 3.97b1, major update of the sticky topic incorporating suggestions, ideas by several constructive people of the forum.

2005-10-10 layout updates suggested by Echizen

2005-10-10 16:24 UTC
Link to Razorlame replaced by All2Lame, HA-Wiki link in bold

2005-10-28 23:30 UTC
additions:
--preset voice is only available in the command line front-end, and is there for compatibility.
It is currently mapped to --abr 56 -mm, so that means that the recommendation would be to encode in mono, and use ABR.

-mm : the sound will be encoded in mono. Eg. useful for low bitrates & when stereo is less important.

2005-11-29 11:45 UTC
Recommendation update: Lame 3.97b2 instead of 3.97b1
Layout/Wording updates suggested mainly by Echizen & others

2005-12-06 10:55 UTC
All2Lame All2Lame is recommended instead of Razorlame or Easylame
Foobar2000 : Foobar2k is not only a Lame GUI, but an all-in-one Audio solution, a Player, which is also a replacement for eg. Winamp or Windows Media Player.
- Easylame removed from list, only old version available, no development, stuck to 3 alt-presets. Razorlame isn't recommended 'cause of reported bugs with new lame versions.

2006-09-27 13:15 UTC
Recommendation update: Lame 3.97 instead of 3.97b1/b2.

2006-10-02 13:11 UTC
added sentence: History of Lame versions & compiles.