What is the best program for encoding mp3s

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-- What is the best program for encoding mp3s

Posted by kotsy on Jun-22-2007 01:56:

What is the best program for encoding mp3s

I'm looking for a new program to encode wavs to mp3s. The one I'm currently using adds the tiniest amount of silence at the start/end of each track, so when I go to burn a seamless track cd, there are very small gaps. Because of this, any cd I want to have on file that I burn like that, I just leave as wavs and it's eating up precious HDD space. I also need the program to be able to convert to 128,160,192, 224, 256 and 320.

Any help would be greatly appeciated.

Thanks!

Posted by mysticalninja on Jun-22-2007 02:11:

cubase.

Posted by Fledz on Jun-22-2007 02:21:

Download Audacity and remove the gaps. Problem solved.

Posted by Zombie0729 on Jun-22-2007 03:15:

lame

Posted by SMC on Jun-22-2007 03:23:

quote:
Originally posted by Zombie0729
lame

+1 Lame mp3 Enc0d3r r teh bomb

Posted by godsendxd on Jun-22-2007 07:58:

aumpel is pretty good.

Posted by SPAWNmaster on Jun-22-2007 12:56:

for a Mac I recommend Max...its got it all.

Posted by Agenz on Jun-22-2007 15:00:

dBpowerAMP

Posted by kotsy on Jun-22-2007 23:44:

quote:
Originally posted by Zombie0729
lame

where might I find this program.. I've heard lots about it.

Posted by MrJiveBoJingles on Jun-23-2007 09:23:

LAME:

http://www.free-codecs.com/Lame_Encoder_download.htm

And a front-end for it:

http://www.dors.de/razorlame/index.php

Posted by Sanguis Mortuum on Jun-23-2007 12:08:

Re: Re: What is the best program for encoding mp3s

quote:
Originally posted by D.Edge
doesn't every mp3 encoder does that?

No.

Personally Id recommend LameDropXP. It uses the LAME codec and also has a really simple interface, you just right click and choose compression options to choose what kbps you want then drag and drop files onto the box to compress them.

Posted by Sanguis Mortuum on Jun-23-2007 13:05:

Re: Re: Re: Re: What is the best program for encoding mp3s

quote:
Originally posted by D.Edge
interesting. could you explain please? unless you're saying that the decoder removes the header, zero padding and ID3 tag information...

Ive no idea what you're blathering on about. An encoder does not add silence to the beginning of a track, thats all Im saying.

Posted by Sanguis Mortuum on Jun-23-2007 15:12:

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: What is the best program for encoding mp3s

quote:
Originally posted by D.Edge
which, by the way, is wrong. even LAME does it:
http://lame.sourceforge.net/tech-FAQ.txt

although it's possible to reduce the delay at the start to zero, the technical FAQ explains why this is not done.

(i hope this isn't too complex for you to understand).

The FAQ states:

"LAME embeds the amount of padding in the ancillary data of the
first frame of the MP3 file. (LAME INFO tag). The LAME decoder
will use this information to remove the leading padding of an MP3 file."

So although the files do have 528 samples added to the beginning, these are removed again when decoded by the LAME decoder, and so when converting back to wav to burn as an audio CD these will be automatically removed to burn a seamless CD. Also, when playing back these files, providing the LAME decoder is used, the padding would also be skipped, and so, although theres technically 528 zero'd samples at the beginning, they're always skipped and as such are not really 'added silence'. Its possible though that the encoder included in whatever software he uses to burn the CDs does not recognise the LAME INFO tag and therefore does not correctly strip the silence when decoding, leaving a slight pause.

I must admit, I wasnt aware of these added samples, so I do stand corrected in regard to these, the main thing that threw me was this statement by you:

quote:
i would have thought the silence corresponds to the mp3 header.

Which seems entirely meaningless to me. The header is added file information before the audio stream, and does not contribute to any extra silence included in the audio stream itself...

Posted by kotsy on Jun-23-2007 17:29:

There has to be a way for no padding while it's in it's mp3 form. I've downloaded some mix cds via torrent and burned them as is and they play seamlessly.

Posted by Sanguis Mortuum on Jun-23-2007 18:43:

quote:
Originally posted by kotsy
There has to be a way for no padding while it's in it's mp3 form. I've downloaded some mix cds via torrent and burned them as is and they play seamlessly.

Did they come as a single mp3 and a cue file? Thats what you normally get for mixed CDs to absolutely guarantee theres no gaps...

Posted by Sanguis Mortuum on Jun-23-2007 18:49:

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: What is the best program for encoding mp3s

quote:
Originally posted by D.Edge
and i've seen your name on another forum. DOA?

Yes

Posted by kotsy on Jun-23-2007 19:11:

quote:
Originally posted by Sanguis Mortuum
Did they come as a single mp3 and a cue file? Thats what you normally get for mixed CDs to absolutely guarantee theres no gaps...

Nope. It was one track per song.

Posted by thecYrus on Jun-24-2007 08:21:

does someone know a windows explorer extension to right click on a file and convert it directly to predefined formats/settings/bitrates/..