Recommended LAME

Introduction

This article is meant to explain to the users what are the Hydrogenaudio recommended settings to be used with LAME for highest quality MP3 encoding.

These settings require Lame 3.94 or later. Lame 3.97beta found on this website is the recommended version (check here to download).

Avoid using alpha (a) versions of LAME. More often than not those are exclusively for testing purposes, if you want to help developers with feedback.

Note: At a given bitrate range, the quality scale is following: VBR is higher quality than ABR which is higher quality than CBR (VBR > ABR > CBR in terms of quality). The exception to this is when you choose the highest possible CBR bitrate, which is 320 kbps (-b 320 = --alt-preset insane).

Note: all modes and settings mentioned in this topic belong to the specifications of the MP3 standard, and the resulting MP3s should be played by every standard-conform MP3-Decoder. If this shouldn't be the case, blame the manufacturer or developer of your MP3-Decoder/device.

VBR (Variable bitrate) settings

VBR: variable bitrate mode, the goal is to keep a constant quality and saving bits where possible without lowering the quality.

VBR can be useful to get good quality from a specific quality level. Size is less predictable than with ABR, but the quality is usually better.

-V(number) where number is 0-9, 0 being highest quality, 9 being the lowest.

List of recommended settings

Switch	Preset	Target Kbit/s	Bitrate range kbit/s
-b 320	--preset insane	320CBR	320
-V 0 --vbr-new	--preset fast extreme	245	220...260
-V 0	--preset extreme	245	220...260
-V 1 --vbr-new		225	200...250
-V 1		225	200...250
-V 2 --vbr-new	--preset fast standard	190	170...210
-V 2	--preset standard	190	170...210
-V 3 --vbr-new		175	155...195
-V 3		175	155...195
-V 4 --vbr-new	--preset fast medium	165	145...185
-V 4	--preset medium	165	145...185
-V 5 --vbr-new		130	110...150
-V 5		130	110...150
-V 6 --vbr-new		115	95...135
-V 6		150	95...135
-V 7 --vbr-new		100	80...120
-V 7		100	80...120
-V 8 --vbr-new		85	65...105
-V 8		85	65...105
-V 9 --vbr-new		65	45...85
-V 9		65	45...85

See also Technical data for recommended LAME settings

If the target is eg. streaming, where you need MP3 in ABR or even CBR mode, there are still the ABR and CBR modes.

ABR (average bitrate) settings

ABR: average bitrate mode varies bits around a specified target bitrate

(128 kbit/s ABR: roughly the same filesize as 128 kbit/s CBR)

• ABR Setting tuned from 320 kbit/s down to 80 kbit/s
  • --preset <bitrate>

<bitrate> (desired averaged bitrate in kbit/s) can be any value between 8 - 320 , like eg. 9, 17, 80, 128, 133, 200 etc.

Example: --preset 200

CBR (constant bitrate) settings

CBR: constant bitrate mode is not efficient regarding distributing bitrate to more complex music parts and saving bits where it would be possible without lowering the quality of those music parts. Only recommended for usage in streaming situations where the upper bitrate margin must be strictly enforced.

• CBR Setting tuned from 320 kbit/s down to 80 kbit/s
  • -b <bitrate>

<bitrate> (bitrate in kbit/s) can be only: 8 , 16 , 24 , 32 , 40 , 48 , 64 , 80 , 96 , 112 , 128 , 160 , 192 , 256 or 320.

Additional reading

• More information on LAME
• Configuring EAC and LAME with recommended settings
• Forum discussion of the recommended settings
• Forum discussion of the recommended settings (older)
• Previous recommendations (outdated)

Credits

A big thanks to all LAME developers for making one kickass MP3 codec.

People who took part in suggesting the different settings:

Dibrom, r3mix, ff123, Hans Heijden, kjempen, Benjamin Lebsanft, GeSomeone, Wombat & GuruBoolez for his immense testing.

Creation of the alt preset system and related special code level quality enhancements:

Dibrom, with technical assistance from Robert Hegemann and Naoki Shibata, Gabriel and extensive tuning help and quality verification via listening tests from JohnV and also initial help (--dm-preset era) from Hans Heijden, ff123, Wombat, and others. Test clips, bitrate information, and further listening tests provided by TheBashar, zbutsam, Pio2001, BadDuDeX, r3mix, h, TarX, Hans Heijden, ff123, Wombat, Filburt, Volcano, Garf, MrDrew, TrNSZ, nyaochi, Amadeus93, in no particular order, and many, many others we (Dibrom, user) probably forgot to mention.

Idea (also exposing the need for a unified preset system), Original post and list of original settings collected by: user

Layout and additional work by: dev0, CiTay, SNYder, Dibrom.

And finally...

Thank you ALL in the community for making it what it is, providing interest and discussion and helping to work towards the most concise, well tuned, and most thought out MP3 quality "paradigm" seen yet! biggrin.gif -- Dibrom