Hello All,

I hope someone here might be able to help me with this problem:

I have recently downloaded a version of LAME.exe 3.97 (have been using 3.96 before that without problems) from rarewares.org. This is a special version made to work with an .ini file for presets. I set the ini-file to the preset of my choice and then tried encoding wav to mp3 with Razorlame, but I keep getting this error message:

Command: C:\Programme\Razor\Lame\lame.exe -b 256 -m s -h -V 0 -B 320 "G:\Eigene Dateien\All I Wanna Do.wav" "G:\Eigene Dateien\All I Wanna Do.mp3"
C:\Programme\Razor\Lame\lame.exe: unrec option --b
C:\Programme\Razor\Lame\lame.exe: unrec option --m
C:\Programme\Razor\Lame\lame.exe: unrec option --h
C:\Programme\Razor\Lame\lame.exe: unrec option --V
C:\Programme\Razor\Lame\lame.exe: excess arg 0
LAME version 3.97 (http://www.mp3dev.org/) ...
Encoded 0 files in 0:00:00
There was an unexpected LAME message for one file, please check log for error messages.

This happens with other applications as well, such as EAC. I have tried a number of things to get rid of the problem, but it still won't work. Tried googling as well.
I would very much appreciate any ideas or suggestions,

Greetings schuraz

This command line looks weird to me. -b 256, -B 320 and -V 0 are 3 mutually contradictory bitrate/quality definitions for one and the same file. Have a look at the list of recommended LAME settings in order to learn how to properly set up the encoder, in your case how to correctly modify the .ini file. I'd recommend using C:\Programme\Razor\Lame\lame.exe -V5 --vbr-new instead of any of your 3 choices, because in my opinion they're simply waste of space, making the MP3s a real annoyance if they're added to a flash-based player's limited storage maximum. Encode a few files and try discerning them from the originals via a proper ABX test, I'm quite sure your ears will agree to the fact that there's no serious need for these overkill bitrates.

Thank you for your reply Junon, I just tried out the setting you recommended and I think you're right, it sounds just fine. At least for pop music I suppose it's all the quality I need.

What I still don't understand is why the other applications (EAC, Razorlame) won't work with the new version of LAME, and why they send these strange command lines to the lame.exe. Because there's not much I can do to modify the ini, the quality setting is determined by just one two-digit number. Perhaps it's something with the ini-file and command lines from applications giving lame contradictory requests?

Still wondering, Cheers,

schuraz

I won't be of much help concerning the RazorLAME issue because I haven't made use of it so far, but EAC should work just fine with the 3.97 Release if you set it up to progress the ripped data under usage of a user defined encoder. Locate the version 3.97 LAME.exe, define .mp3 as file extension and uncheck "Add ID3 tag". LAME will properly tag the files using this command line ("Additional command line options"):

-V 5 --vbr-new --id3v2-only --pad-id3v2 --ta "%a" --tt "%t" --tl "%g" --ty "%y" --tn "%n" %s %d


I think you're right here. Better don't rely on the .ini file or otherwise automatically generated LAME settings, but switch to command line encoding set up by yourself instead. At least that's how I had encoded my audio files to MP3 before I turned to more modern audio formats (mainly FLAC and Vorbis at the moment, partially HE-AAC for my mobile phone), and I can't remember ever having had any greater issues this way. Might be a bit complicated at the beginning, but you'll get used to it.

I don't know enough about RazorLame to comment except to say that you need to find some way to disable those parts of the command line as they are not recognised in the modified version of Lame. The tagging should work fine but all other quality settings are disabled.

I'm sure normally that would be the best way to do it, but unfortunately it doesn't work with this custom "ini" lame.exe I have, there still seems to be conflicting info for the codec. I just found another way around the problem though, instead of choosing "external compression" I let EAC use the lame dll (compression format > lame 3.97 dll) and that way lame seems to get no preset info from EAC and just uses the ini-preset - works fine. That gets me what I wanted, ripping and encoding in one step with no interruptions.

And RazorLame works as well now, after I just found out that I need to check "use only custom options" under the "expert" tab. That way, no preset input from RazorLame to lame.exe, no conflicting info. I guess I could just as well have used the regular 3.97 lame version instead of the ini-version, but I kind of liked the idea of having one general setting for lame that always remains the same, without having to check preset settings and worry about proper command lines in every application that uses lame.

Thanks again for your input, you also got me thinking about alternative encoding methods (eg. vorbis, flac), maybe I should switch to those in the long run. Frankly I just don't know a lot about their advantages yet, but I'll give them a try. I always thought mp3 was still the best for compatibility reasons, bur perhaps that's beginning to change...?

Cheers, schuraz



Thank you John, that's exactly what the problem was (see my above post replying to Junon). Glad I got that problem figured out. I might stick with the modified version now after all, since it seems to work fine now. As long as other apps get along with it, it's a good idea having the easy preset option using the ini-file.

schuraz