Hi, I do not know that much about the lame tag that was introduced in lame 3.9 alpha 7 or 8...

I know it can be disabled by the -t switch,
and that it has something to do with recording the settings used to encode (for example, you can know via the tag if shortblocks were disabled, etc.).

Here are my questions:

1. What program can read this "tag"? Encspot? Any winamp plugin?

2. Have any decoders encountered difficulty reading an mp3 with the tag?

3. Does the tag have any advantage for people who rip their own cds, know the encoding string (e.g., --alt-preset normal) and do not trade their mp3s with anyone?

4. Any other advantages/disadvantages/comments on the lame tag?

Thanks...

RD

I might well be wrong, but isn't this the Xing VBR header?

john33

Yeah, actually I haven't taken a closer look at it but here are the specs: http://users.belgacom.net/gc247244/extra/tag.html


well, Encspot can show you if a mp3-file uses shortblocks or not. I don't think lame tag stores this particular info.

Encspot will probably be the first.

I don't think so.


Well, Lame tag stores at least this info (some examples in brackets):
*VBR quality (-V & -q value)
*Lame version info (Lame 3.91a)
*VBR method (cbr,abr, vbr-mtrh, vbr-old, vbr-new)
*Lowpass filter value (19500Hz)
*replay gain values (gain, "radio", ideal listening loudness)
*nspsytune (yes/no)
*nssafejoint (yes/no)
*whether the track is encoded with --nogap
*encoder delay
*noise shaping mode used
*stereo mode (mono,stereo,joint stereo)
*source wav sampling rate (48khz, 44Khz)
*exact length in bytes of the MP3-file
*MusicCRC (contains a CRC-16 of the complete mp3 music data as made originally by LAME)
*CRC-16 of Lame tag itself

However, if you use settings like --alt-preset normal which is highly code level tweaked, i don't think you can always make full conclusions about the tag info...

We encountered a problem only once: it was mp3.com thinking the files were vbr even if they were cbr. But it's now fixed.
There shouldn't be any problem because the tag is a totally valid mp3 frame (unlike id3, as an example).

If you're not trading, it could still be usefull as it stores encoder delay. It means that a decoder could use this info to make gapless mp3.

I know, this thread is hella old...but google came up with that thread ...anyway, is there another method how I can view the LAME-Tag? I usually use EncSpot but there seems to be a bug...so sometimes it only shows the Xing-Tag and not both (Lame-Tag and Xing-Tag).

thanks

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=6709

I started that post , but thanks anyway

Yeah I know, but I thought it might be the thread you where looking for

Still, I don't know any software that will read the Lame-tag besides Encspot and Frontah.