I used Exact Audio Copy to create 2 versions of the same track. Both tracks had the '--preset standard' command line parameter set but with one track I set the bitrate parameter in Exact Audio Copy to 320kbps and the second one I set it to a variable bitrate of 192kbps. Exact Audio copy shelled out to lame and created the mp3s without a problem. It was my beleif that the '--preset standard' option overrode all other settings but the resultant mp3s were different sizes and the bitrates related to the bitrate I selected in EAC so my question is: Is this behaviour correct? Does the '--preset standard' option work in conjunction with the bitrate selected in EAC or is the bitrate, correctly or incorrectly, overriding the 'preset standard' option? Are these results what people would expect?

Thanks

Pete

If you have the parameter passing scheme set to "LAME MP3 Encoder" changing the dropdown list to anything but 128Kbps will add the -b switch to your command line. The -b switch sets the minimum bitrate that should be used.

To resolve this, select "User Defined Encoder", and ensure your command line ends with %s %d, e.g.:

-V2 --vbr-new %s %d

Check the wiki for the definative guide.

Removed. Confused mess - both answers consolidated into answer #1.

Thanks Synthetic Soul, I didn't know about the wiki.

one last thing:

If I have the parameter passing scheme set to "LAME MP3 Encoder" and change the dropdown list to 192kbps VBR does this mean that the bitrate will never go below 192kbps?

I want the highest quality VBR rate there is but if there were say 10 frames in the middle of a track where there was no sound at all, I would expect lame to use a very low bitrate, if not a zero bitrate as encoding at 192kbps would be crazy. Is this what happens or would lame stick with 192kbps even thought that part of the track could be encoded at say 32kbps with no loss of quality?

Thanks

Pete

Thats correct, unless it is digital silence in which it will go down to 32kbps

you probally want to use the highest VBR mode, which will be -V0 --vbr-new

Thanks

Damn. Just discovered this. It is simply stupid that it behaves this way. I just chose 96kbps from that drop down menu. I hope that takes care of it and doesn't cause any problems.

Uhm.... before I lowered the EAC setting from VBR 192 to CBR 96, the encoding window showed some frames being encoded in 32kbps. Now there are none of them. What could cause this?

Not sure if i get you, but if you changed it to CBR 96 of course no frames will be encoded at 32kbps!? they will all be 96kbps :S

Kristian

Never mind, I found out. I use VBR, i use:

-V0 --vbr-new

When I had chosen VBR192 from the drop down list, it used 192 as minimum bitrate, but encoded some frames at 32kbps. When I changed to CBR96, 96 was the absolute minimum, and no frames were encoded at 32kbps. I thought that was a little weird.

Anyway, I changed Encoder to "User defined" and added %s %d and now it works fine. Let's hope this is fixed in the next version of EAC or LAME so that any setting will be overriden by the command line.

I assume that it is supposed to be a benefit!

If you choose "LAME MP3 Encoder" then you can easily change the command line with the dropdown list.

If you want total control then simply use "User Defined Encoder".

I think that this functionality is just deemed less useful now that the presets are the recommendation.

If people were still using CBR with a few tweaking switches then the dropdown functionality may have been quite useful, to quickly switch between different CBR/ABR modes.

Unless something has changed, then the behavoir when using "LAME MP3 Encoder" as "Parameter Passing Scheme" is the following :

--alt-preset standard: Bitrate setting has no impact except when 320kbps is selected. This will produce 320kbps CBR files.
--alt-preset <bitrate>: The bitrate selected from the drop-down list will be used as the minimum bitrate (even if the value specified for <bitrate> is lower than the bitrate selected from the list). If 320kbps is selected, the output will be 320kbps CBR.
--alt-preset cbr <bitrate>: The selected bitrate has no impact at all.

From the FAQ thread here :
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....t=25#entry67461