Lame & Itunes MP3 encoding settings and file size comparison
What and Why
I wanted to create good quality MP3 backups for most of my CD collection, particularly as I have a bad habit of leaving CDs lying around resulting in them starting to skip. Secondly, I sometimes listen to music on my laptop and palm and wanted to build up the number of tracks I could choose from.
I wanted to ensure I had high quality MP3s while keeping the disk size as small as possible (my laptop does not have a large amount of space).
I also wanted to investigate how to produce MP3s which were small enough to fit on a portable device (a mobile phone, or palm) with very limited space, while keeping the sound quality as high as possible.
MP3 is showing it's age, it's been around for over 10 years, and there are many newer formats (aac, wma, ogg) which produce a higher quality sound with the same, or smaller, file size. However MP3 is still the de facto standard format for music files, and as such was the format I wanted to store my music. Every major audio device or program can play MP3s and should another format take over from MP3 in the future, I could be sure that there will be many converters out there to convert MP3s to the new format.
Finally, if size and quality are the two main variables in encoding an MP3, the third is the amount of processor time required. Generally speaking, the more processor time spent on encoding, the better the sound at the same file size (or, put the other way, the same quality of sound at a smaller file size). Time taken was not an issue for me, I wanted the highest quality MP3 at a reasonable file size, regardless of time taken to encode the file.
Summary
I looked at a number of sites. Most were created by audio enthusiasts, highly knowledgeable regarding digital audio, and able to tell the slightest difference in quality between audio files of the same track. All (correct) information provided on this page has been gleamed from these sites (mentioned below), and all credit belongs to them.
Universally, they recommend LAME to encode MP3s, and most recommend 'Exact Audio Copy' to actually get the information off the CD (which then passes this - in wav form - to lame to encode). See Radified Guide to ripping and encoding MP3 for more information regarding why. Exact audio copy is slower than other rippers, though this is down to it getting every last piece of information from the CD - often taking several passes - to ensure the highest possible rip.
Test 1 - Encoding two tracks from 'Air - 10,00hz legend'
The tracks (the first two on the album):1 'Electronic performers' and 2 'How does it make you feel'
Track 1 size (mb) |
Track 2 size (mb) |
software/ version |
settings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6.93 | 5.43 | lame 3.63 | --preset medium |
| 7.70 | 6.11 | lame 3.96.1 | --preset medium |
| 7.66 | 6.05 | lame 3.96.1 | --preset medium |
| 7.70 | 6.11 | lame 3.96.1 | -V 4 |
| 6.42 | 5.30 | lame 3.96.1 | -V5 --vbr-new -q0 --lowpass 19 --athaa-sensitivity 1 |
| 6.40 | 5.29 | lame 3.96.1 | -V 6 |
| 6.40 | 5.29 | lame 3.96.1 | -V6 --vbr-new -q0 --lowpass 18 --athaa-sensitivity 1 |
| 6.39 | 5.29 | lame 3.96.1 | -V7 --vbr-new -q0 --lowpass 17.5 --athaa-sensitivity 1 |
| 6.39 | 5.29 | lame 3.96.1 | -V7 --vbr-new --lowpass 18 --athaa-sensitivity 1 |
| 5.56 | 4.47 | itunes | vbr medium (min128) |
| 1.38 | ? | itunes | vbr medium (min32) |
| 4.77 | 3.86 | itunes | vbr medium-low (min112) |
| 4.98 | 4.00 | itunes | vbr highest (min112) |
| 5.70 | 4.60 | itunes | vbr high (min128) |
Test 2: Mercury Music Prize 2001
The mercury music prize is a UK based award for the best UK album of the year as decided by a panel of judges from a shortlist, this album is the shortlist from 2001, see the freedb.org entry for the album.
Total Size (Mb) |
Program |
Settings |
|---|---|---|
| 47.8 | eac/lame | -V5 --vbr-new -q0 --lowpass 19 --athaa-sensitivity 1 |
| 58.2 | eac/lame | --preset medium |
| 65.6 | eac/lame | --preset standard |
| 45.9 | eac/lame | -V7 --vbr-new -q0 --lowpass 17.5 --athaa-sensitivity 1 (eac 128) |
| 42.9 | eac/lame | -V7 --vbr-new -q0 --lowpass 17.5 --athaa-sensitivity 1 (eac 112) |
| 45.2 | itunes | good quality 128 (fixed bite rate) |
| 41.0 | itunes | vbr min112 low quality |
| 41.5 | itunes | vbr min112 med quality |
| 42.6 | itunes | vbr min112 high quality |
| 48.0 | itunes | vbr min128 med quality |
Useful websites and information
- http://mp3.radified.com/ Radified Guide to ripping and encoding MP3a - comprehensive set of pages, and up to date as of Jan 2005
- http://www.bestmp3guide.com/ -
- http://jthz.com/mp3/ - up to date page on MP3 encoding and recommended LAME settings.
- Hydrogenaudio FAQ and links for MP3 & EAC
- LAME pages at sourceforge (including parameter descriptions)
- MP3 Tech
- Lame Binaries [1] [2] [3]
Note
This page was written in 2005. While others continue the debate for the perfect sound, I got bored and decided to let Itunes rip my CDs.