Usage of the commandline encoder

## Common and recommended switches

### Common settings

    % lame [options] inputfile [outputfile]

- Constant Bitrate: -b number or --preset cbr number Valid values for the -b settings depend on the sampling rate1.

      lame -b 128 sample.wav sample.mp3

- Variable Bitrate (ABR mode): --abr number or --preset number Valid values for the --abr setting range from 8 to 320.

      lame --abr 128 sample.wav sample.mp3

- Variable Bitrate (VBR mode): -V number Valid values are from 0 to 9, with decimal values possible, where 0 is the highest quality while 9.999 is the lowest one.

      lame -V2 sample.wav sample.mp3

### Hydrogenaudio recommended settings

Very high quality, HiFi, home, or quiet listening, with best file size : -V0 (avg. 245 kbps) or -V1 (avg. 225 kbps) or -V2 (avg. 190 kbps) or -V3 (avg. 175 kbps).

VBR settings will normally produce transparent results. Audible differences between these presets may exist, but are rare.

- Very high quality, HiFi, home, or quiet listening, with maximum file size2 : -b 320

  This CBR mode will maximize the MP3's bitrate and overall file size. The extra space may allow for some parts of the audio to be compressed with fewer sacrifices, but to date, no one has produced ABX test results demonstrating that perceived quality is ever better than the highest VBR profiles described above.

- Portable, listening in noisy conditions, lower bitrate, smaller file size: -V4 (avg. 160 kbps) or -V5 (avg. 130 kbps) or -V6 (avg. 115 kbps)

  -V6 produces an "acceptable" quality, while -V4 should be close to perceptual transparency.

- Very low bitrate, small sizes, eg. for voice, radio, mono encoding : --abr 80 (stereo) or --abr 56 -m m (mono)

  For very low bitrates, up to 100kbps, ABR is most often the best solution. --preset voice is only available in the command line front-end, and is there for compatibility. It is currently mapped to --abr 56 -mm, so that means that the recommendation would be to encode in mono, and use ABR.

1. Codec | sample frequencies (kHz) | bitrates (kbps)
   --- | --- | ---
   MPEG-1 layer III | 32, 44.1, 48 | 32 40 48 56 64 80 96 112 128 160 192 224 256 320
   MPEG-2 layer III | 16, 22.05, 24 | 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 80 96 112 128 144 160
   MPEG-2.5 layer III | 8, 11.025, 12 | 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64

2. Lossy codecs, like MP3, should not be used for archiving, since the nature of lossy encoding always changes the original sound, even if it sounds transparent. Use lossless codecs for this purpose.