I am new to using EAC and LAME. I formerly used Audio grabber, and Playcenter to rip and encode my music. I want to start using the LAME encoder to get the best possible MP3 but I don’t know where to begin. I started using RazorLAME which seemed to be a good front-end for LAME but I am now ready to move on. How do I get the “real” version of LAME 2.92 since it is only distributed in source code? Then how do encode using it? – without having to use another front end program if possible.

I have visited the home page and could not get any clear answers.

Any help would be appreciated.

hi,

have a look @ doom9.net or doom9.org.
You'll find the newest compiled LAME-version 3.92 for Win32 under the section 'download'.
For best usage, run LAME under the command line.

lame --longhelp | more

gives you the full options-listing and the pipe to more.com stops after every page so you can read the text without hurry ;-).

But you can use the LAME.DLL, included in the package, within EAC, too.

RazorLame IS the "real" LAME...

You already HAVE LAME 3.92 (or some other version), since RazorLame cannot do anything if you don't have LAME.

You can see what version of LAME you have by clicking Actions -> View Last Log.

If you want to have absolute control over the LAME options you use, at the LAME Configuration panel choose "Expert" mode (I think it's called expert, or maybe "Advanced"), this is a checkbox and if you check it it causes RazorLame to ignore **ALL** options except those you specify in the "Expert" text field.

This is the same as running LAME from the command line, only much prettier!

If you have the latest version of RazorLame, the options it uses are shown at the status bar at the bottom of the window. This way you can easily see what command line switches you use.

For the latest version of RazorLame, see
http://www.dors.de/razorlame

For the latest Windows compiled LAME executables, one of the most "official" sites is Mitiok's page:
http://mitiok.cjb.net

Mitiok's compiles are considered to be as "official" as any compile you can find.

I hope I helped!

cya
PJ

Thanks for the fast and precise answers. In five minutes you answered questions I have since I started using these apps.

Now that I know you use the external lame executable for razorLAME, are there any other front end applications that do the same thing but are better or have more features than razorLAME?

Thanks again!!

I don't know of any other such front-ends, tho tof course there will be some more... but IMHO RazorLame is as pretty and functional as you can get.

Remember that in "Expert" mode you choose what options you use (I recommend to do that) so it doesn't matter what options the front-end offers.

If you are unsure what options to use, you can try to use just ONE option, --alt-preset standard.

This switch in fact activates a whole lot of settings which you needn't worry about if you don't know a LOT about mp3 encoding. It's a VBR mode, gives average bitrates of about 190 kbps (~220 kbps in "difficult to encode" music like metal) and is top-notch quality.

If you want even more quality (and larger bitrates) use --alt-preset extreme or (for the theoretical "absolute best quality that LAME can offer") --alt-preset insane.

If you like --alt-preset standard but it's too slow for you, you can try --alt-preset fast standard which is quite a bit faster, and only a bit worse in quality.

Personally I use standard, and I think I wouldn't be able to hear the difference between "standard" and "fast standard", but encoding time isn't an issue for me.

If you want to know more about these switches (and see other choices you may have) visit the forums at http://hydrogenaudio.org. One of the moderators, Dibrom, is the person who worked to refine and include all those "alt-preset" stuff into LAME.

Good luck!

There are a lot of programs that are able to use the Lame codec. Most of those I know about are cd ripping programs, but at least CDex also have the option to convert a wave file to mp3.
I can remember these:
CDex from www.cdex.n3.net
dbpoweramp from www.dbpoweramp.com
EAC from www.exactaudiocopy.de

Monkeys audio from http://www.monkeysaudio.com/
This is mainly a tool for compressing your wave files into LOSSLESS .ape files, but it can also actg as a front end for most encoders.
All of these tools are free, BTW!

With CDex try the 'r3mix' preset under Lame. This will give very nice VBR mp3s (--alt-preset standard is not available internally with CDex)

You can also download the .DLL version of the LAME encoder and place it in your Windows directory. It will show up like an ACM codec in programs that look for it (EAC, TotalRecorder...). EAC will then have another property page, LAME DLL, where you can set up some LAME-specific options.

Upside: encodes directly to mp3 without generating an intermediate .wav file. A little faster since the reader isn't spinning down and back up all the time.

Downside: No additional command-line parameters (like -r3mix) can be added.

EAC can also use the LAME executable directly. (EAC >> Compression Options... >> External Compression) This way you can specify additional command-line parameters and also benefit from EAC's built-in support for tagging!

EAC makes a very nice front-end for LAME once you know what parameters you want to use. It saves a lot of work.