...as default? I posted this on the r3mix forums a while back, but got a limited response and then they died - so I'll post my idea here.

It's quite a simple one - I have never understood why RazorLame doesn't encode using the presets by default, rather than assuming you're going to do a bit of "reading up" about it first and implement them yourself. True, it would be great if everyone did that, but as we all know from downloading appalling encodes that it just isn't true.

So, for example... when someone new to Razorlame slides that little scale to, say, 160, in order to specify that they would like a cbr 160 file... I want it to encode with --alt-preset cbr 160, so the resulting file benefits from the code level tweaks and any lowpass/highpass settings that come with it.

Implementing the VBR presets would be a little trickier... although am I correct in thinking that the VBR Q0 setting is still experimantal? If so, there should at least be a warning to this effect. And even if it's not, we all know that no custom VBR line is going to be better than --alt-preset extreme. Basically, I'm saying that RL should make it as hard as possible for people to use "silly" settings. Sometimes, you can't even accuse people of being "silly" for using them - when I first got my hands on RazorLame, I knew that VBR was best and that I wanted the highest possible quality from it... so I just specified VBR and put both the quality levels to 0. I would have appreciated it massively if it had have simply defaulted me to --alt-preset extreme; it would have saved me having to go back and re-encode a fair few things after I learned of my mistake.

Of course, I'm not saying that I want to lose any options... just to set it to default to the best settings. In the case of CBR encodes at least, there is no excuse not to; the filesize will be virtually unaffected (maybe totally unaffected?), all that will change is the quality of the music.

i think this is just because razorlame was developed before the presets were available in lame

I put together my own RLO pack of mostly the alt presets. It's available here. If I were you I'd use v3.90.2 for presets 1->10, and 3.93.1 for presets 11->14.

I'm quite new in LAME MP3 Encoding.
Always use -b 32 -m j -h -p -c -V 0 -B 320 --resample 44.1 -q 0
Is it OK ?
For me, I see no different between the source and the output.

You should use one of the listed commands:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....T&f=15&t=203&s=

What's the command for in mp3?

like i wanna transcode a hq mp3 to a lq mp3? & i dont wann use a seperate program ... i once had it but forgot

--mp3input input file is an MP3 file. decode using mpglib/mpg123

Research my friend: http://lame.sourceforge.net/USAGE

Are those commands for using only with Lame 3.90 and Lame 3.90.2 ?
Are thay better than LAME 3.93.1 ?

@gazzyk1ns:

Regarding why there are no alt-presets included in the default presets in Razorlame, I'm not entirely sure. I don't buy the bit about razorlame being developed before the presets, because the way the razorlame stuff is setup, it'd be extremely trivial to just update things. It's also not as if the author wasn't aware of these presets.. he used to post here in the past, and I'm sure many people have emailed him asking about this stuff.

I think maybe it has something to do with the fact that the author seems very pro-r3mix (there was a bit of fallout over discussion of r3mix/making things easier for newbies/providing correct info/etc) and not particularly pro-HA. Since the presets were developed here and not over there... well.. you get the idea.

But, correct me if I´m wrong, Dibrom. Didn´t RazorLame at one point supported the --dm presets? Back when this was "Project Mayhem" (I still have it like that in my browser bookmarks, nostalgia, I guess )


By the way, Dibrom, you did receive my apologies, didn´t you?

Ah, that would explain it!

Whatever the reason, it's a shame that RL doesn't default to the preset which corresponds to the bitrates/settings you specify. We all get fed up when people turn up here and ask things like "Which settings are the best to use with LAME?" and "Is VBR REALLY better than X...", but we really shouldn't; at least they've got the sense to realise that what their frontend is doing by default isn't producing the best possible results.

Maybe a frontend (or modification of RazorLAME if the current developer consents?) could be produced whereby:

1. It does default to the presets (whilst still retaining the option to do everything else, of course), and

2. URLs, linking directly to specific posts in the FAQ section here, are placed in a very prominent place in the "Help" section, with the aim of giving people quick, full answers to the very common questions like "Is it safe to use Joint Stereo?" and "Is VBR better than CBR?" etc. Again, it's all right to moan and angrily shove them in the direction of the FAQ when people post here with questions like that, but it's hardly reasonable to expect someone who just wants a quick answer to read through several thousand words on the matter. I think people can forget how intimidating it can be when visiting a new message board; there are 19 forums in here! Anyway, just a couple of links to specific concise posts (or even short passages in the "help" section itself... I'd be happy to write them) would solve that in a lot of cases.

Having said that, I don't want it to look like I dislike RazorLAME in any way - now that I know how to use it properly, I'm sure it's by far the best frontend out there.

Hi Dibrom,

I'm still around, although I'm checking the forums very very seldom.

Just to make sure everyone understands: I'm trying to not being particularly "pro" or "contra" anything. The discussion you mentioned was (IMHO) extremly anti-r3mix, which I felt was not the Right Thing to do.

Anyway, I'm nowdays recommending HA over r3mix, and am using --alt switches myself.

If I ever do update RL again (which is something I plan, but don't hold your breath, probably nothing big), I will certainly remove r3mix and add alt presets.

As for "defaulting" to presets, I'm not feeling inclined to do that. RL is intended to be a front-end for LAME. Why should RL default to presets and not LAME?

I agree that RL should not default the use of presets. BUT:

It would be very nice to have a first tab called "Lame presets" or something similar, offering access to presets.
(note: it's likely that new vbr presets will appear, ideally there would be 10 ones)

Maybe Gabriel is right, there should simply be a prominent tab added which lets you easily use the presets.

The only reason I suggested that RL should perhaps default to them is that the vast majority of people simply use the application as they find it, assuming that they can't go wrong if they don't go tampering with it. Although I've downloaded literally hundreds of LAME encoded files from various different sources, I have only ever come across one in which I can be sure a preset was used (and that was --alt-preset cbr 160).

I hear cries of "well... it's their loss!"; but it's not their loss at all, it's 100% our loss. If they can't tell/don't know the difference between using the presets and not using them, then they're not going to care in the slightest. However, when we go to download their "not optimally-encoded" file, we're going to be the ones who are disappointed and frustrated that they didn't take the extra 5 seconds to use a preset.