I recently purchased IMTOOs Platinum pack and one of the utilities is the audio encoder. A most powerful one I expect, but there is a learning curve. There are many options for encoding wav files from an audio CDl. Some are obvious e.g., in converting from wav to MP3, the LAME version of MP3 seems to be the best from what I gather from the forum. But there are many other options, that are not clear to me as one of the aspiring-to-be-informed folk. Is there a place (surely!) that discusses the pros and cons of formats like Monkeys's Audio Encoder, FAAC DLL encoder, FLAC Encoder, Lame MP3 encoder, ImTOO MP2 Encoder, NTTVQF DLL encoder, ImTOO WAV encoder, and the MS WMA9 and WMA encoders. All these are in my ImTOO encoder utility. Apart from "what works best" I would like to know some of the details. My needs are simple. I want to get good performance and compatibility. I like to play mp3 files in my car radio (it does do that) but is it likely to be able to read LAME MP3 files or APE files or any of the other formats? In this emerging technology with so many incredible gifted people doing thing, we less informed folk could use some guidance to enjoy this remarkable technology. Thanks
There are all kinds of formats. Playback compatibility is the key. LAME MP3 is tough to beat. Anything will recognise its MP3s. Then there is OggVorbis, powerful but relatively obscure. Will it play in your car? FLAC is an interesting technology, it is lossless compression (as opposed to lossy, as in MP3) which means, in theory, that you could decompress the file and get your WAV back, for CD burning. It will not shrink a WAV to 10% of its size though... Windows codecs bite, they are heavily into DRM and WTF, Bill's rich enough already, right? What else? MP2 is a lower-quality, higher-compression technology appropriate for compact voice recordings at 'radio' quality. Don't worry, just use LAME 3.96.1 It is of course available on AD if required: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/audio_software/audio_encoders/lame_mp3_encoder.cfm Typically you would overwrite your version with the newest lame_enc.dll file. Hope this helps Regards
Thanks. I have downloaded Lame 3.96.1, but it is not yet clear to me how one "installs" or uses this software. It appears to be command line oriented though there are some files that show a gui interface. I have been using the IMToo audio tools and note that the lame_enc.dll files appear in some of the IMToo folders. Can one replace the original ImToo dll files with the one from the LAME 3.96.1 download?
vorbis is the best in lossy audio compression, players from iriver supports it. 1.1 have gone final. http://www.rarewares.org/ for the same bitrate you encode with mp3 you'll get better quality.
