I've been using lame 3.90.2 /w alt-preset standard -b64 (-b64 there or else there is near 100% 128kbps frames) for 22khz music for awhile, but it just dawned on me that possibly the --aps settings don't properly scale for 22khz music.. Is this ok or should I use something else? Quality is the major consideration, though I want something smaller than 160kpbs cbr (max for 22khz). Thanks.

Yes, you should use FhG.

Lame isn't tuned for anything else than 44.100 Hz. Quality will be much worse than FhG encodings, theoretically.

Ok, thanks for that advice..

I've never used fhg much.. I have the nero mp3 encoder, is that an unbugged fhg encoder? And what options would be good? Is it safe to use highest quality, and vbr?

Theorically the quality of lame --preset 64 would be very inferior to FhG.
But you might be surprised by the real results...

Indeed. Lowpassing a little bit lowe than you think you should be with Lame at lower bitrates to avoid artifacts, is better than getting them anyway with the less configurable, supposedly better FhG encoder.