Hi all,
I'm on Mac OSX 10.4, and I just found this site (after waiting a LONG time for an answer@another site), and I need help setting up my encoder properly.

* From what I've read here so far, the "alt-preset-insane" will give me my required 320kbps; is this all I need to write in the settings box?

* What does the "-h" and "-b" mean?

* What does this mean: "--nspsytune -b320 -h -mj --nssafejoint --lowpass 20 --athtype 2 -X3"?

* How do I insure ID tags are written?

* What all do I need to write to get the best possible mp3 sound, and all the info into a file?


As you can see, I'm a newbie to this. I'd like better sound quality than what's in iTunes alone. The LAME version I'm using is 3.90.3 in the "iTunes-LAME" plugin for Macintosh, as I do not know how to use the LAME codec by itself on a Mac.

Thank you all for your help.

You'll want to use --alt-preset insane for 320k CBR with LAME 3.90.3. That's all you should need in your settings box.

That being said -h is the same as -q2 which is what the presets use. -b specifies a bitrate in your case 320.

Ignore that long commandline since all of the presets workings were code level tweaks in LAME 3.90.3 and that line will give you inoptimal quality.

Not sure about how to get ID3 tags going with iTunes-LAME.

Best possible mp3 is --alt-preset insane. Overkill usually but best possible mp3

Thanks Dream Tactix291. How would I go about using a stand alone encoder for the Mac?

Open Terminal and navigate to the directory containing the lame binary, then run it with the following command:
./lame

Or move the lame binary to your path, so you can call it anywhere with lame.
sudo mv lame /usr/bin/

that means that somone thinks he's smarter than the developers and found a 'magic' command line that is better than the already optimal tuned --presets, which of course is baloney...so simply don't use anything else than the --presets

Okay...so maybe I shouldn't have asked this question I don't "F" around in the Terminal I'll just have to stick with iTunes-Lame.


Also, I see alot of talk from Windows users about Exact Audio Copy; is there a Mac-equivalent... for exact copies?

Thanks again, guys.