Using Lame 3.92 Stable and the latest available version of RazorLame I recently tried to encode an album. I used RazorLame's "cd"-preset (which represents the command-line switches -b 192 -m s and -h). Everything vent well and the output mp3s sounded ok, but when I loaded the album in the win98-version of Foobar2000 it claims that the files are vbr-encoded.

This caused me to investigate the output files closer and it turns out that also MAC has a problem with them. MAC claims that all files are 192 cbr, but the average bitrate of the whole album is just 191 kbps!

Does anybody know if this is just caused by bugs in Foobar2000 and MAC, or if I made some mistake during the encoding-process? Or maybe I'm using a bad compile of Lame?

use this:

--alt-preset cbr 192

Just did, Foobar2000 still claims that it's vbr.

I haven't used razorlame for a long time but there's an option to only use the command-line you write in the additional commands field. Have you turned that one on?

Yes, when I tried the "--alt-preset cbr 192 "-option i did. But still, no effect.

I'm going to try and download another build of Lame, maybe that will help.

List of recommended LAME compiles

Ok, I downloaded one of the recommended compiles (this) and then tried the "--alt-preset cbr 192 "-option again, but still no change. Foobar2000 still reports "192kbps 44100Hz stereo VBR"!

I thought it could be a bug in Foobar2000 but it doesn't claim that any of my other mp3s are vbr, so that seems unlikely.

What could be the problem?

Install this: easylame13en.exe

RazorLAME + LAME 3.90.2, pre-configured.

Downloaded and tried EasyLame, but it made no difference.

I'm beginning to believe that it's actually Foobar2000 that's playing me tricks. Neither MAC, 1by1 or mIRC says anything about vbr, why Foobar200 thinks they are I have no idea.

Maybe someone else could try and encode a file with the same settings in Lame and then tell me if Foobar2000 behaves the way same to them?

Thanks for the help anyway.

Its not Lame problem I think its a F2k problem. Every FIle i play using Fb2k it displays as vbr even when i knoe for a fact that it is FnG 192 CBR Stereo. I think its a bug ... just a small one.

Why dont u try using EncSpot or sumthing to see ur files .... or winamp.

Fb2k bug i believe

win98 version reports cbr correctly.

Well, it actually seems that it doesn't. I ran EncSpot on the files, and according to it's analysis the files are in fact not vbr.

I have another album (not encoded by me) that also is falsely indicated as vbr by Foobar2000. The encoder used in that case is Lame 3.91 (according to EncSpot).

It seems to me that Foobar2000 has problems determine whether or not a file is encoded with vbr if the encoder is one of the later versions of Lame, but on the other hand I've got files that doesn't show up as vbr in Foobar2000 but is still encoded by 3.90 and later (according to EncSpot).

This is all very confusing.

How about this? Yes it does. I have 51 cbr files and all of them are reported so by encspot, winamp, 1by1 and most importantly foobar200 w98 v 0.33 At this very moment I am ripping track one from the nearest cd I have and am now encoding it using --alt-preset fast standard. It uses vbr q=2. Reported as vbr by encspot... winamp... 1by1... and foobar2000...

All mp3's in playlist say 192kbps 44100hz stereo... Now this track I just made is 188kbps 44100hz stereo VBR.

Seems that both vbr AND cbr bitrate reporting is correct. abr is reported as vbr in foobar2000. Joint stereo is also reported as stereo.

Perhaps adjustments could be made to have foobar report joint stereo as such. I'm not sure how hard it would be to implement if not impossible.
*edit*
This with cbr from lame 3.89 to 3.94a8 and almost every one in between. The vbr and abr files checked with 3.90.2 and 3.94a8 It doesn't seem to matter what version foobar still does it correctly.

just redownloaded version .34b

was suing .32

now works fine. CBR doesnt say nething, VBR says VBR

edit:

read this
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....=ST&f=24&t=5177

but it seems to affect only lame cbr encoded mp3s.

The lame tag is the likely culprit. It writes a vbr frame at the beginning of the file which stores the tag info, IIRC. I had a similar problem where my rio wouldn't properly accept files, cbr or no. It read vbr/abr files as 128 kbps and truncated the end portion of the song. I solved it by disabling the lame tag with the -t option on the commandline.

Thanks for the advice mpcfiend, your method solved the problem!

I noticed the LAME VBR tag with CBR issue some time ago, too. I still don't understand why LAME puts that inthere for CBR files.

Another thing.... I don't like the LAME tag. But if I disable it with -t for VBR files, it doesn't write any Xing header either. So the file is all screwy.