I have Roxio 8 and it has the LAME encoder built in......but whenever I try to do vbr it is more CBR for example if I do 256 VBR the range is 252-260..........

other stuff I have seen from lame are 160-320 range........am I doing something wrong?

Can you see what settings are used? Maybe Roxio is using ABR (average bitrate) instead of VBR.

It sounds more like ABR to me.

What do you mean by 252-260? You obviously aren't talking about frames because these can only be 320, 256, etc. Are you saying that the files you have encoded are all in this range for the average over the whole file?

Roxio has a drop down box where I can select MP3, WAV, ETC
If I select MP3

I can then select VBR or CBR once I select one of those

there is a slide bar on the bottom

but if I choose 256 kbps instead of the kbps range fluctuation a lot like some SCENE releases

it only goes from 256 to 258 to 252, etc

according to the tar file in the roxio setup it says its lame 3.96 if that matters

Hi airtas, what you are seeing with that "252..258" is NOT the actual bitrate on a frame by frame basis (because those are only certain fixed values such as 128, 160, 192, 224, 256 etc). What you are seeing is in fact the time average over some time interval (determined by the software player you are using and therefore unknown to us).

Please use something like encspot (google for or download here : http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Au...s/EncSpot.shtml ) to show a summary of the actual frame by frame information. Please post that information here ok.

I use WINAMP which shows the varying VBR normally. I installed roxio 2009 and it works fine so I am assuming it is a glitch on roxio 8?


how do I know which version of the encoder is used?

I am unsure why you are using Roxio to make mp3 files to begin with. Roxio is obviously not using the different -V quality settings that Lame offers and is instead forcing some type of VBR performance based on the input bitrate. I would stick to foobar2000 for your conversion needs. It can convert many different file formats to other formats. Additionally, by default, it uses the different -V values with Lame. You can also update the Lame.exe file that foobar2000 uses. I think WinAmp can even properly use Lame for VBR encoding.

Yea your right the only reason I used ROXIO was because it always found the CD INFO with gracenote


Do you think it is not really using LAME since it doesnt use the -V quality?

Lame 3.96 is really Lame, just not a very recent version. The version is less of an issue than the inability to use the full range of presets.

airtas, if tagging is your big issue, look into dbPowerAmp converter. It is a paid for app but you get 30 days free trial. It has the ease of Roxio but it does things right. It always has the current stable version of all the encoders it uses. If you pick the LAME encoder, you can chose the V setting and the analysis speed from the GUI. It uses a paid for subscription to a very complete tag database. It has found tag info for burned a disk I bought from a street musician. The actual rip is superior. It uses Accurip that verifies that your reader read the track correctly. It is perfect for the lazy person that doesn't mind paying a little money to get it done right the easy way. I have used it for many years and have yet to find a single technical problem with it. Some years I have had some trouble with installing a new version over the old version. That I can live with. What I can't live with is any kind of hearable defect or artifact.

I didn't see this earlier or else I would have replied to it. Roxio is really using Lame but not to its full potential. It appears that Roxio is either implementing its own VBR command line or using an ABR setting. Either way, it doesn't look like it is using the -V commands and that would be reason enough for me to not use it. oldtimer5 pointed out my recommendation.