I hope this is not to far out of a question. I am using the latest version's of EAC and LAME along with the cammand line of "-V 2 --vbr-new --id3v2-only --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d'.
My question is this. I seem to be loosing some of the high freq. information in the process of encoding. The music no longer has that clear, crisp sound. The drum cymbals sound somewhat muffled, not bright and clear. And other high freq. intruments sound the same.
I just loaded iTunes and tried using it's mp3 function. It seems to be better. But I would just as soon not use iTunes. It seems very SLOOOOOOOW.
Anyway, I do not know if I am doing something wrong or what. Any suggestions here?

Thanks,
Lon

Try -V 0 and give us your impressions.

No, tell yourself that higher number equals better quality and try -V5, then do an ABX test and give us your impressions.

Ok, so what am I missing here. -V0 encodes at a higher bit rate. To me, this seems better. -V5 will encode at I lower bit rate. Is this not lower quality?
And I am still wondering if I am doing something or setting up something wrong? Or is it just a case of not rencoding at a hight enough bit rate?

Thanks again,
Lon

I was kidding, but you should seriously do an ABX test, or you risk landing in Recycle Bin for breaking †os8.

Ok, thanks for your help. I did not mean to be asking the wrong question. I just assumed that someone with some knowledge about this might be able to help me out.

Lon

Its not the wrong question, its just the wrong assumption. Specifically, you're assuming you can hear a difference. Don't make assumptions

The forum rules don't allow it. Spend 5 minutes to do an ABX test in foobar or Winabx. Then you can post the hard numbers so the rest of us can provide you with informed responses instead of just guesses.

I will try that. I just made the assumption, which I see I should not, that when I have read that -v2 should be transparent, that might mean that I would hear no difference between the original source and the mp3 I created. But that might not be true.
The command line that I used in EAC contains alot of switches that I, honestly, have no idea what they do. I was wondering if they would have anything to do with my original question.

I will try as suggested.

Thanks,
Lon

-V2 almost certainly will be transparent but as already said, abx it if you think there's a difference. What are you comparing the LAME encoded tracks to? if it's Itunes ripped and encoded files there may be a difference due to the itunes files being poorer quality, though again this probably won't be noticeable if you've got high quality settings. You need to abx the LAME encoded tracks against lossless files.

I would have thought Itunes would be faster than EAC in secure mode (though I haven't tried Itunes recently) but I'd recomend using EAC and LAME anyway.

If you're just using

"-V 2 --vbr-new --id3v2-only --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d"

then the switches are mostly for tagging and will not reduce the quality.

Is the option in Parameter Passing Scheme (EAC > Compression Options > External Compression tab) set to "User Defined Encoder"?

Which version of the LAME encoder are you using?

To answer your questions here goes.

Donney, the only thing I have used to compare the LAME encoded track to the original is my ear. To me that is a pretty good test as to wheather it sounds the same or not. But I know that is not very scientific!!

sld, yes the "User Defined Encoder" opstion is selected and I am using the lame.exe file from 3.97b2.

Thanks for the replies,
Lon

Make sure that equalizer is turned off in your player when you compare mp3 with original wav. Also try decoding mp3 to wav and then compare with original (this should eliminate the equalizer factor).


P.S. You say you use "only your ear", but in reality you use ears, eyes and parts of the brain responsible for imagination. To really use ONLY EARS - you need to make double-blind ABX-kind of comparison.

hehe maybe he has bat ears and can hear above 19k I heard about a man that heard a 24k tone... but you should do double blind test anyways.

J.M.

Yes, bat ears!!! But seriously, I am reading about doing the blind test as suggested.

Lon

foobar2000 can do this test using the ABX plugin, and can use ReplayGain to equalize the volume levels.