This topic should be a centralized place to post problematic samples for LAME.

You should post here:
*sample link
*short description of the problem
*LAME settings regarding the problem
*LAME version used

This thread is only to collect samples. Discussion should occur in this thread.

This sample adds distortion that sound like sandpaper. Mostly noticeable on the first "e" when she sings become.
This is for lame 3.90.3 aps but more problematic on 3.97b -V2. Adding --vbr-new worsens it even more.

Birds.flac

Here are rythmic plops added mostly on second 2-3 and louder at second 9-10.
Don´t know if plops descripe this sound correctly. Another impression would be some "pumping" noise is added. Once spotted, it is really loud.
This happens with 3.97b2 and 3.98a2 -V2 --vbr-new

It is velvet.wav and is offered at Sourceforges Lame Gpsycho test sample page

This is a sample I found in a thread but I'm sorry I don't remember it and was not able to find it again:
Trumpet sample

It is seriously distorted when encoded with Lame 3.97's and 3.96's VBR modes.
It is a bit less distorted when encoded with 3.90.3 VBR modes.
It is also distorted with 3.97b1/b2 cbr 320.

There is some listening experience (by StephanV, Wombat, myself [hope I didn't forget somebody]) in:
Using 'insane' settings (cbr 320)
The mother of all problematic samples

A problem sample (herding_calls):
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=37002

The previous discussion and test reports are in this thread:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=37003

Similar problem like Birds but should be even easier to hear when using 3.97 -V2 --vbr-new 3.97 -V2 is not much better. 3.96 does best again.
The whole sample suffers by added noise. This happens on several places on this album but to a less degree.

Deploration

How can I hear the noise?

http://my.netian.com/~lsj17/Birds.mp3

I used 3.97 b2 with -V2 --vbr-new options.
but,
I couldn't find any noise...

Please try my link to hear...
Can you guys find any noise from the link?

or

Am I just one person who can not find the noise?

I couldn't hear anything either. Sounded fine to me.

Well, if you don´t hear it, it is fine. Some people are more sensitive to different artifacts.
I don´t need any effort to hear this while i have problems hearing pretty obvious pre-echo.
Any further discussion, like the 2 posts above belong here:
Lame problem samples discussion

I found in the upload section a sample that produces a strange and very annoying artifact. This is something as phasing with modulation and dropout.

I tested in ABX with Lame 3.97b2 -V2 and Lame 3.97b2 -V2 --vbr-new; both seem to be in the same situation.

This is the sample:

aps_killer_sample

I will test with other versions of Lame. In this moment I am very busy.

Interesting sample. I'm actually able to abx it fairly easily at -V 5, which I've not been able to do with other samples. Cool!

This piece of song is about 2 minutes long and adds noise often. As meanwhile common 3.96 -V2 --vbr-new is pretty clean! Here a small clip:

Moon


For the people above that can´t hear a problem with Birds, please try this one or Deploration and give some feedback please in the Lame problem samples discussion thread.

Edit: the problem occurs with 3.97b2 -V2 --vbr-new, of course

http://my.netian.com/~lsj17/Deploration.mp3
http://my.netian.com/~lsj17/Moon_short.mp3

Can I get some result files?
I mean mp3 files with the noise.

Please just try my links.
I couldn't find any noise yet.

If these samples are 397b -V2 --vbr-new and you can´t hear something in Moon_short i doubt you ever will. Moon_short was only downloaded 5 times till now. Seems like mp3 isn´t much interesting these days here.

So..
Do you hear the noise from my links?
If you do, I guess my ears aren't good.
Right?

I have a question.
Is there sample original?

I mean,
Am I supposed to find the noise from your file?
or
Do I have to encode your file to hear the noise?

I encoded those files from what you uploaded, then I compared that with your file.
Is something wrong?

Sample: angelic
A filtered sawtooth with heavy reverb and phasing.

Problem:
It sounds like someone is crumpling the styrofoam of a microphone.

Settings:
lame -qX angelic.wav

Versions:
3.90.3: Does not have this problem with either q0 or q2 (no presets used)
3.96.1: Shows a certain amount of fluttering which increases with each q level (tested 0 through 3)
3.97b2: q0 shows extreme amounts of the crumpling noise. I think everyone will be able to hear this. q1 through q3 have the same problem but to a lesser extent.

In two of the 3.97 alpha testing threads you will find some abx tests at higher settings.
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ndpost&p=276433
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ndpost&p=279873

edit: Easily ABXable with 3.97b2 -V2 --vbr-new: 15/16 (was clicking too fast)
edit2: removed a "don't" where it shouldn't have been.

Sample: thunder

The comment in that post is for iTunes AAC, so never mind.

After severe iTunes problems I tested LAME and was able to ABX 397b2 -V2 --vbr-new with 10/10. -V0 --vbr-new was transparent to me with 6/10.

I'll try to describe what I'm hearing: I focused on the synth sound starting shortly after 20s. Especially that second synth which is positioned to the right sounded smoothed or smeared to me.

I forgot to add this link here:

ftp://ftp.tnt.uni-hannover.de/pub/MPEG/au...am/harp40_1.wav

harp40_1 is an old problem sample. I can easily ABX it. (LAME 3.97b2 @ -b 160 and -V3 --vbr-new). More in the discussion thread.

Hi, btw my 1st post here
I know synthetic samples like this are not going to occur in normal music, but anyways here it goes.
It's a modified sawtooth wave with harmonics and stereo sorround. It produces a NASTY hissing @128kbps cbr w/ Lame 3.97b2. The hiss is about the same loudness as the sample itself It goes away a bit with 3.98a3, but is still here. Also with -V 2 --vbr-new the bitrate inflates to 270kbps (not normal)
surround.flac

Here's another sample, this time from real music
It is great for pre-echo testing, 3.97b2 --preset standard has problems with it. Also in CBR mode there is some bubbling artifact accompanying the bass.

scooter.flac

edit: WinAbx (this is with 3.97b2 --preset standard)


edit again- the bubbling or gurgling is gone when *not* using high quality ( -h) option

Artificial sample triggering problems:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=44228

looped part from "scooter" sample. high-frequency dropouts in latest Lames (cbr 128k and 160k). Produces artifacts that sounds like short "water splash" or "blip"

scooterlooped.flac

(see this thread: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=45049)

J.M.

edit: added blip

Maybe a similar issue (frequency dropout), ABX = 11/12.

The sample is No. E50 from my catalog.

additional information:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ndpost&p=396742

Another sample: scooter2.flac

Problem: Ringing with bitrates up to 320k. (--preset insane)

Late edit: happens with -q 0, -q 1 and q 2

Spectrograms, that really don't say anything: original sample, Lame --preset insane sample.

WinABX (with Lame3.98a4 --preset insane -h) :

though I can hear it only in my left ear which is better at high frequencies.

J.M.

Do you mind trying 3.90.3 --alt-preset 270 (or alt-preset insane)?

Edited: Sorry, should go to the discussion. Can one of the moderators move it there pleease?

Only latest Lames are affected (3.97 and higher), and ONLY in HIGH QUALITY mode (-h) down to -q 0.
The ringing dissapears when encoding in default quality.

J.M.

Thanks a lot. And I'm glad to hear that latest Lame version is fine as well using plain defaults.

Here is a fixed sample: scooter_fixed.flac
Sorry to all you who weren't able to hear the pre-echo in the previous sample, because it simply wasn't there. The previus sample had beginning silence cut out, and this made the pre-echo dissapear (possibly because of different block size selection)

J.M.

Sample: uh.flac

Problem:
alteration in stereo image
Female vocal move to right compared to original.
IMO -ms fix this.

Settings:
-V 5~0 --vbr-new

Version:
LAME 3.97b2
LAME 3.98a6

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ost&id=2224

Something like clipping. 397b2 and 398a6 (last compile). More noticebly for V5 and less for V0.

I've uploaded a 10s wav file (1725kb) to the uploads section:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ost&id=2554

That sample is the first ten seconds of "La Di Da Da" by Jebediah. I normally encode at the V5 setting and noticed that this sample had much lower quality than usual. The guitar plucks around the 1-second mark sound echoey/slurred. I also tried it at V2, which improved the problem but a difference to the original was still clearly audible (19/20 ABX). Foobar reports a drop in bitrate at the time (to ~84kbps for V5 and ~116kbps for V2), so I also tried the CBR 192 and ABR 192 settings. Both of these fix the problem AFAIC.

Since the sample is at the start of the track, I re-ripped & encoded it, this time including the last ten seconds of the previous track. This sounded the same as before (10/10 ABX), so the problem is not caused by being right at the start at the song.

Encoder: LAME 3.97b3
Settings: V5/V2 VBRnew

Average bitrates for the whole song:
V5 - 140kbps
V2 - 217kbps
ABR192 - 185kbps

Hi!

I am think thait it is problem sample what i am described at http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=48944.

Sample at flac http://www.tfkc.ru/single/lame/09._Madonna...or_me)_cut.flac

3.97 final ABXable 10/10 at "-V 2" and "-V 2 --vbr-new" switches.

In additional to what i am wrote in that topic it is easy to hear and 10/10 abxable preecho with bitrate up to and including 320 kbps with lame 3.90.3.

edit: add direct link to sample and "3.97 final" line

Sorry to bump an old thread, but this is very interesting sample:

sylver.flac

It is from a track "Sylver - Forgiven". It has sharp "plucks" in it which get smeared.

ABX: Lame 3.97 -V0: 10/10
Lame 3.97 -b 320: 10/10

This sample is easily ABX-able even at 320kbps! There is evident pre-echo or smearing of the "plucks".

-J.M.

Just to add, this sample sounds horrible with -b 128.

Is it worse than the eig pre-echo sample?
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=49601

My sample is very similar to this one.

Thanks for posting that link.

J.M.

Gabriel, I have a good sample for you! I'm encoding a soundtrack for the movie "La Fille sur le pont". I tried to do it with lamedropXPd (Lame 3.97 Final) with settings corresponding to -V 4 -h. So, in my yamaha monitor headphones I noticed right away that the hiss in beginning of the movie suffers at certain places. Here's a sample, I hope your headphones are good enough to hear this distinct high frequency distortion.

Original FLAC: Fille_Sample.fla
Lame Encode: Fille_Lame_V4_h.mp3

Well, I found another nasty pre-echo killer sample, that is easily ABX-ed with -b 320. At first, this sample didn't look like anything very hard to encode, so I was actually surprised how bad it sounds even with -b 320.
here is it: shokk.flac (from the track "S.H.O.K.K. - Isn't It All A Little Strange")
J.M.

btw. which LAME version do you use?

3.97b3 (which is the same as 3.97 final IIRC)

Not sure if there is interest for new problematic sample. But it's the lowest scored one of more than 50 samples. http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....ost&id=3453