I was wondering what version of lame (including alphas) is the best for around 128kbps encoding and what switches to use... I understand JohnV's policy on alphas but this isnt for archiving or anything... its just for temporary usage for my portable. When a better lame version comes out for 128kbps encoding, ill temporarly use that version etc... so, what is the best version and command line as of yet? Thanks!

I'd use 3.90.2 and --preset cbr 128.

<insertdisclaimeraboutalphaversionshere>

JohnV did some tests regarding 3.90.2, 3.93.1 and 3.94alpha4 or 5 at 128kbps and pointed out, that with the 3.94alphas a simple commandline using nspsytune and -h will already gives you higher quality than older versions using the alt-presets.

Personally I'd use 3.90.2 --alt-preset cbr 128 though.

dev0

If your mp3 player fully supports VBR, I would stay away from CBR and go with --alt-preset 128 and LAME 3.90.2, as it sounds better on some samples than does --alt-preset cbr 128. If you don't mind your files being a tiny bit lareger, I would even try something like --alt-preset 140, which still averages out to be about 1MB/minute..

Yea, im using 3.90.2 with --alt-preset 128 and sometimes with the --lowpass 16000 switch for a little extra quality (You know what i mean, its lower quality but with my mp3 player, i cant tell anyway). I was just asking if one of the alphas are better with a certain command line (at the moment, not necesserly in the future). But i do know of JohnV's policy on recommending alphas in non alpha threads though, and dont want to get anyone into trouble with him Oh and yea it seems to fully support vbr! although it didnt reconise a --alt-preset 96 file as it uses a resample of 32000? (not sure), but when i add the --resample 44100 switch its fine.