Small overview of LAME frontends
Small introduction: "Lame ain't MP3 encoder" or simply "lame" is one of the most promising modern MP3 encoding engines. As time has been going by, it has been constantly improved by a group of volunteers who tried to create the best mp3 producing engine. I think, successfully: unlike lots of other (even commercial!) encoders, lame has a great VBR (variable bitrate, allows an encoder choose the bitrate iself, depending on the character of the music: the more complicated it is, the higher bitrate is used) and Joint Stereo (improves stereo data coding) modes, which increase the quality of a file greatly. LAME is not just an encoder: it is distributed in the form of source codes (because of some patent stuff), but you could easily find a command-line version or DLL, which could be used by lots of windows applications. The thing is that it's not the easiest way to operate a command-line tool for non-professionals, so smart guys :wink: made so-called frontends, software tools, allowing you to set the encoder up with a graphical user interface. Below there's a small review of three interesting lame frontends I used for some time. I do not give any links: it's easy to find all you need using the search engine Google.
RazorLame (ver 1.1.5 by Holger Dors; ~332Kb)
Works with command line version of LAME. Allows you to control most of the features of lame. Supports encoding/decoding.
Plusses: expert mode, which allows you to write command line parameters manually (you could still use GUI settings, for sure), lame string is always visible, so you could control the result (if you understand what you're doing). Supports so-called presets and the latest version already comes with a set of presets, which should be enough for most of the users. While encoding, the program hides the lame.exe window and displays all the information of its own screen instead. The encoding display is informative: it shows output format, bitrate allocation (for VBR), estimated and passed time and so on. You could send the program to systray to work in background mode.
Minuses: the only big minus for me is the interface, which looks far from the modern style. Nevertheless it's still very easy to use and the author promised to update buttons in next versions. No support for tags.
Resume: I use it now :)
WinLAME (ver RC2 full by Michael Fink and Bjorn Knorr; ~701Kb)
More than just a LAME frontend... This program also allows you to encode files to the new Ogg Vorbis format and AAC (advanced audio coding). Decoding to WAV is also implemented, for sure. Very nice looking and useful tool.
Plusses: Nice looking and easy-to-operate GUI, presets, control of advanced encoder features (useful for professionals or just maniacs), ability to change encoding priority in real time, minimize to tray, support for various input formats and so on... Hm... The help file is amazing! Must read!
Minuses: works with DLLs, so you cannot work with lame command line (are you sure you need it?); there wasn't my favorite --r3mix preset, and I was too lazy to create it manually by editing a text file or working with GUI. No tag editor.
Resume: if you just need to convert some WAVs to MP3s (OGG/AAC) go and download it!
lamedrop/lamedropXPd (ver 1.3/1.21 by Layer3Maniac/John Edwards ~132/440Kb)
These two tools work exactly like Oggdrop and OggdropXP, if anyone knows what they are. Just drag and drop WAV files to the window. Each program allows you to select one of predefined presets and runs the console window of lame.exe. The XPd version also allows to work with ID3 tags and gives a better control of the encoder.
Plusses: easy to set up, easy to use, the XP version can even write tags.
Minuses: both programs don't have any help or documentation, lamedrop doesn't hide the console window...
Resume: Does it work? Yes. Works well? Sure. Need anything else?
Generally there are many more frontends than listed above, but I've chosen these on my own taste. IMHO any of them could be OK for you, if you need to make MP3s and don't want to adjust dozens of parameters manually (just load a preset). Each program has its particular advantages and disadvantages and shouldn't cause any problems while working with it.