I'm new to this encoding thing, and was wondering if anybody could explain how to use LAME on a mac? Right now I have this program that implements LAME in my iTunes. Are any better options out there. I'm trying to upgrade the quality of my music library and need help doing so. I guess I want to use VBR around 192. Does this mean that some parts of the mp3 will be encoded at 320 kbps? Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks.

I don't know iTunes-LAME that well. So others have to comment about this one.

But i highly recommend you check out Max.
A CD ripper and audio encoder/decoder application for Mac OS X. You will need the "Unstable" build if you run Mac OS 10.5.
...or you can run LAME from Terminal, if you want full control.

IIRC, iTunes-LAME uses an old version of LAME. I have seen instructions here on how to upgrade the version, but I agree that Max is a good app.

One virtue of Max is that you can simultaneously rip to, say, FLAC and a lossy codec. If you've got the disk space, I'd recommend that. It becomes much easier to convert to a different lossy setting, if your needs/taste change.

Max at http://sbooth.org/Max/

As for settings, you need to test for yourself (truly), but you're unlikely to be dissatisfied with V2.

Best

Michael

in the midst of huge file shufflings as he finally tidies up the rips from vinyl

Thanks for the reply. So "V2" would be "transparent" in MAX?

Doesn't quite work like that. V2 is a setting for LAME, and MAX is a front-end for LAME (for these purposes).

What is transparent is, truly, a question of your ears, your type of music, your type of listening, your equipment. I'm in my 60s, so I can use quite a low setting. There's lots of information on this if you fossick around the site, in the knowledge base and FAQ. But, from all I read, the short answer is that LAME V2 is good enough for all people most of the time, and most people all of the time, and if it's not good enough in a specific case, you'd best just go straight to a lossless encoder. Assuming you want to listen to music, rather than learn about audio compression.

Have fun

Michael

Yes. I haven't got Max installed at the moment, since moving to 10.5, but as I recall the control Max has labelled as "Transparent" is the setting for -V 2 --vbr-new (or whatever the current equivalent is).

Yes, that's right, I misunderstood the question. Sorry.

Michael

Max (0.7.1) has 3 presets (but also allows custom settings):
- Portable (130 kbps vbr)
- Transparent (190 kbps vbr)
- Best (320 kbps vbr)

And that is exactly why I don't like Max: you cannot set LAME settings through switches, you have to use pop-ups, sliders, chechboxes etc. that -hopefully- point to the switches you want. What is vbr-new for instance, and what the old VBR? I never managed to find out.

Also, Max tends to choke a lot on tracks. I think it didn't finish ripping 10 to 20% of the disks I fed it.
Max is GREAT however for ripping damaged disks, it can read disks that slide and skip all over the place in other software.

So, I was very happy when iTunes-LAME started working again. The developer abandoned the software for over a year, and during that time successive iTunes upgrade broke the compatibility. Tracks would show up with all kinds of missing information in iTunes. Anyway, that has been fixed again in the newest version.

Another pro of iTunes-LAME is that it is a package, which means that it shows up as a program but basically is a folder with ordinary files. Because of this it is trivial to replace the LAME version iTunes-LAME uses with another one. Open the package (right mouse click), find old LAME, drag new LAME over it.
You can't do that with Max, that has LAME embedded in libraries, you are at the developers mercy there for LAME upgrades.