Mp3 faq - What codec settings

What codec settings?

More difficult. As previously mentioned, some people prefer CBR (constant bit rate) while others think that VBR (variable bit rate) delivers on its promise of the best quality at the best overall compression ratio. Whichever you use, don't make the error of going too low or too high. 160Kbps is pretty much the absolute minimum you will ever see requested with 192Kbps much more prevalent. When making VBR files with most programs using Lame you will have many choices. The combinations of parameters are almost endless and can be very confusing to a beginning encoder. The use of the presets (formerly alt-presets) such as preset-standard or preset-extreme will give you excellent quality files with no need to worry any further about parameters. The presets have been tuned at a code level in Lame and will arguably produce results far better than many (or most) of the different parameter combinations you run across. Like anything else, though, nobody but your own ears and your own taste can tell you what is best for you.

If you really think the highest bitrates (224 or 320Kbps or preset-insane) sound that much better and are worth the extra file size then perhaps you should consider checking into lossless encoding where the resulting files (.ape, .shn, .wvc, .flac and others) are larger than MP3 but the quality is exactly the same as the source file. These files are shared in the alt.binaries.lossless groups, not in the a.b.s.m.* news groups.

top of the page