When I create mp3's via EAC rip and LAME encode, I am having a strange problem where no matter what preset I use in LAME, the files always show up in windows explorer as being 320k bit rate. I have LAME set up as the external compression tool and change the preset in the EAC compression interface, but it always comes out 320k. Is there an overridding setting I am missing?

Also as a side question, I'm a little confused by the EAC compression interface. It allows you to select an external tool and provide command line options, but then right below that is a drop down box to select bit rate, that can be adjusted separately from (and seemingly in conflict with) whatever I just keyed in as a command line option right above it. When I change this bit rate, I can see it show up in the log file EAC writes after ripping/compressing, but regardless my output files are always 320k.

By the way it's my first post so be gentle, all knowing HA people. Great site, thanks for any help you can provide.

i noticed this too with my vbr files, dont why windows does that.

to see or it is vbr or not, install encspot and it shows the bitrate of everyframe and other usefull things.

Without knowing what your current settings are it's a little difficult to comment; however Windows is notorious for not being able to accurately report VBR files. You should check them with an application like Mr QuestionMan. They are likely to be fine.

You should certainly have a look at our EAC/LAME wiki guide.

The bitrate dropdown will be used if you select "LAME MP3 Encoder" as the parameter passing scheme - the bitrate in the dropdown (if other than 128kbps) will set the -b switch - the minimum bitrate. If youe read the wiki article, you will see that it is recommended to use "User Defined Encoder" instead, as it ensures that your command line has full control.

Here is a thread on the subject.

Ok thanks. QuestionMan shows that the files are indeed not 320k. Strange since I have d/l other mp3's and they don't have this problem, they read in windows explorer as expected. I should also point out that not ALL of the files I encoded myself show as 320k, I only did one album so far and 9 of the 12 tracks show as 320k, and then one each of 256k, 266k, and 276k. QuestionMan shows them all between 235k and 279k. Here's the log (maybe a clue as to why these don't read right?)


For my parameter passing scheme I had LAME MP3 Encoder instead of user-defined encoder, so I changed it. But now it fails on attempting to encode with the error



What did I break? If I switch back to LAME MP3 Encoder then it works again. I read thru the guide but can't see what the hell my mistake is. Here's the log from those attempts, the first is the one that works and the second doesn't.




One other thing, I was reading another guide before I ran across this site, and it had me d/l wnaspi32.dll and put it in my EAC install folder. Is this needed, or maybe this is from an out-of-date tutorial? It also had me d/l a profile that corresponded to the adapter # and id of my drive.

There goes your problem. When having MP3s with very high bitrate such as preset insane, windows reports them as 320kbps, and not the exact bitrate EncSpot, MrQuestionMan or WinAmp would report. Just go back to your old working settings.

In short, do not believe everything windows tells you...

Cheers!

Did you read the wiki article? You need to be using:

--preset fast extreme %s %d

or, more accurately (using more recent switches (check the LAME wiki page)):

-V2 --vbr-new %s %d

Edit: As you are not passing tags using the command line please ensure that EAC is set totag your files. Again, check the wiki guide for more info.

Many people suggest using the ASPI interface with EAC, rather than the native Windows interface. To use the DLL you will may need to alter the value on "EAC options" > "Interface". Whether it will improve your rips is another thing, and out of my expertise (if indeed I have any!).

doh, I guess I did not read the wiki very well, I thought the %s and %d had to do with id tags! Sorry bout that. Yup it's working now, and windows is reading them the same as QuestionMan says they are (well, close anyway). Thanks again, you guys are smart and stuff. Now to do some abx'ing and find out just how bad my hearing is after years of concerts and other general disregard for volume levels!