1<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 2 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> 3<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> 4 <head> 5 <meta name="generator" content="PSPad editor, www.pspad.com" /> 6 <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> 7 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/lame.css" /> 8 <title>Detailed command-line switches</title> 9 </head> 10 <body> 11<div id="menu"> 12 <ul> 13 <li><a href="index.html">Index page</a></li> 14 <li><a href="about.html">About LAME</a></li> 15 <li><a href="introduction.html">Intro to encoding</a></li> 16 <li><a style="border: 0" href="usage.html">Usage of LAME</a> 17 <div id="submenu"> 18 <ul> 19 <li><a href="usage.html">Common switches</a></li> 20 <li><a style="border: 0" href="detailed.html">Detailed Settings</a></li> 21 </ul> 22 </div> 23 </li> 24 <li><a href="history.html">Version history</a></li> 25 <li><a href="contributors.html">Coders of LAME</a></li> 26 <li><a href="contact.html">Contact LAME</a></li> 27 <li><a style="border: 0" href="links.html">LAME links</a></li> 28 </ul> 29</div> 30<div id="container"> 31<div id="content"> 32 <div align="center"> 33 <img src="images/logo.gif" width="358" height="231" alt="LAME Official Logo" /> 34 <h2 class="hilight">Detailed command line switches</h2> 35 </div> 36 <h3>Options ordered by feature</h3> 37 <table class="settings" cellpadding="4"> 38 <tr> 39 <th style="width:20%">Setting</th> 40 <th>Brief description</th> 41 </tr> 42 <tr> 43 <th colspan="2">Input options</th> 44 </tr> 45 <tr> 46 <td colspan="2">By default, LAME accepts a PCM audio sample inside a .WAV 47 container as the input file, in 8, 16, 24 and 32 bits integer and in IEEE FLOAT. 48 If it is compiled with <a href="http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/">libsndfile</a>, 49 then it also supports the extra formats that the library supports.<br/> 50 There is also support for RAW PCM data and and piped input 51 </td> 52 </tr> 53 <tr> 54 <td>-</td> 55 <td>For piped/streamed Input, use "-" as the input and/or output 56 file name. 57 </td> 58 </tr> 59 <tr> 60 <td>--out-dir path</td> 61 <td>If no explicit output file is specified, a file will be written at given path. Ignored when using piped/streamed input</td> 62 </tr> 63 <tr> 64 <td><a href="#mp1input">--mp1input</a><a href="#note1"><sup>1</sup></a></td> 65 <td>Input file is an MPEG 66 layer I file. Implicit if extension is .mp1 67 </td> 68 </tr> 69 <tr> 70 <td><a href="#mp2input">--mp2input</a><a href="#note1"><sup>1</sup></a></td> 71 <td>Input file is an MPEG 72 layer II file. Implicit if extension is .mp2 73 </td> 74 </tr> 75 <tr> 76 <td><a href="#mp3input">--mp3input</a><a href="#note1"><sup>1</sup></a></td> 77 <td>Input file is an MPEG 78 layer III file. Implicit if extension is .mp3 79 </td> 80 </tr> 81 <tr> 82 <td><a href="#scale">--scale</a> number</td> 83 <td>Scale input (multiply PCM data) by number.</td> 84 </tr> 85 <tr> 86 <td><a href="#scale-l">--scale-l</a> number</td> 87 <td>Scale channel 0 (left) input (multiply PCM data 88 ) by number 89 </td> 90 </tr> 91 <tr> 92 <td><a href="#scale-r">--scale-r</a> number</td> 93 <td>Scale channel 1 (right) input (multiply PCM data) 94 by number 95 </td> 96 </tr> 97 <tr> 98 <td><a href="#gain">--gain</a> number</td> 99 <td>apply Gain adjustment in decibels, range -20.0 to +12.0.</td> 100 </tr> 101 <tr> 102 <td>--swap-channel</td> 103 <td>Swap Left and Right channels</td> 104 </tr> 105 <tr> 106 <td><a href="#nogap">--nogap</a> file1 file2 ...</td> 107 <td>Gapless encoding for a set of contiguous 108 files 109 </td> 110 </tr> 111 <tr> 112 <td><a href="#nogapout">--nogapout</a> dir</td> 113 <td>Output dir for gapless encoding (must precede 114 --nogap) 115 </td> 116 </tr> 117 <tr> 118 <td><a href="#nogaptags">--nogaptags</a></td> 119 <td>Allow the use of VBR tags in gapless encoding</td> 120 </tr> 121 <tr> 122 <th colspan="2">Input options for RAW PCM</th> 123 </tr> 124 <tr> 125 <td><a href="#r">-r</a></td> 126 <td>Assume input file is raw PCM.</td> 127 </tr> 128 <tr> 129 <td><a href="#s">-s</a> number</td> 130 <td>Input sampling frequency in kHz (Default is 44.1Khz)</td> 131 </tr> 132 <tr> 133 <td><a href="#signed">--signed</a> / <a href="#unsigned">--unsigned</a></td> 134 <td> Input is signed (default) or unsigned</td> 135 </tr> 136 <tr> 137 <td><a href="#bitwidth">--bitwidth</a> w</td> 138 <td> Input bit width is w (default 16)</td> 139 </tr> 140 <tr> 141 <td><a href="#x">-x</a></td> 142 <td> Force byte-swapping of input stream</td> 143 </tr> 144 <tr> 145 <td><a href="#little-endian">--little-endian</a> / <a href="#big-endian">--big-endian</a></td> 146 <td> Input is little-endian (default) 147 or big-endian 148 </td> 149 </tr> 150 <tr> 151 <td><a href="#a">-a</a></td> 152 <td>Downmix from stereo to mono file for mono encoding. Needed with RAW input for the -mm mode to do the downmix.</td> 153 </tr> 154 <tr> 155 <th colspan="2">Constant Bit Rate (CBR)</th> 156 </tr> 157 <tr> 158 <td><a href="#b">-b</a> number</td> 159 <td>Set the bitrate in kbps, default 128 kbps</td> 160 </tr> 161 <tr> 162 <td><a href="#cbr">--cbr</a></td> 163 <td>Enforce use of constant bitrate</td> 164 </tr> 165 <tr> 166 <td><a href="#comp">--comp</a> ratio</td> 167 <td>Choose bitrate to obtain the specified compression 168 ratio 169 </td> 170 </tr> 171 <tr> 172 <td><a href="#freeformat">--freeformat</a></td> 173 <td>Produce a free format bitstream instead of the 174 standard one. Supported bitrates between 8 and 640 kbps. Scarce support by 175 decoders. 176 </td> 177 </tr> 178 <tr> 179 <th colspan="2">Variable Bit Rate (<a href="abr.html">ABR</a>)</th> 180 </tr> 181 <tr> 182 <td><a href="#abr">--abr</a> number</td> 183 <td>Specify average bitrate desired (instead of quality)</td> 184 </tr> 185 <tr> 186 <th colspan="2">Variable Bit Rate (<a href="vbr.html">VBR</a>)</th> 187 </tr> 188 <tr> 189 <td><a href="#V">-V</a> number</td> 190 <td>Quality setting for VBR. default number=4.<br/> 191 Decimal values can be specified, like: 4.51<br/> 192 0=highest quality, bigger files. 9.999=lowest quality, 193 smaller files 194 </td> 195 </tr> 196 <tr> 197 <td><a href="#vbr-old">--vbr-old</a></td> 198 <td>Use old variable bitrate (VBR) routine</td> 199 </tr> 200 <tr> 201 <td><a href="#b">-b</a> number</td> 202 <td>Specify a minimum allowed bitrate. default 32 kbps (See -F setting below)</td> 203 </tr> 204 <tr> 205 <td><a href="#B">-B</a> number</td> 206 <td>Specify a maximum allowed bitrate. default 320 kbps</td> 207 </tr> 208 <tr> 209 <td><a href="#F">-F</a></td> 210 <td>Enforce -b option for digital silence frames too, rather than encoding them at 8 or 32 kbps.</td> 211 </tr> 212 <tr> 213 <td><a href="#t">-t</a></td> 214 <td>Disable VBR informational tag</td> 215 </tr> 216 <tr> 217 <td><a href="#T">-T</a></td> 218 <td>Enable and force writing LAME Tag</td> 219 </tr> 220 <tr> 221 <td><a href="#Y">-Y</a></td> 222 <td>Allows -V2, -V1 and -V0 to not to encode the highest frequencies accurately, if doing so causes disproportional increases in bitrate. This is the same that CBR and ABR modes do.</td> 223 </tr> 224 <tr> 225 <th colspan="2">Operational options</th> 226 </tr> 227 <tr> 228 <td><a href="#preset">--preset</a> type</td> 229 <td>Enables some preconfigured settings. Check below 230 for each of the valid values 231 </td> 232 </tr> 233 <tr> 234 <td><a href="#priority">--priority</a> number</td> 235 <td>Sets the process priority:<br/> 236 0,1 = Low priority <br/> 237 2 = normal priority (default)<br/> 238 3,4 = High priority 239 </td> 240 </tr> 241 <tr> 242 <td><a href="#flush">--flush</a></td> 243 <td>Flush output stream as soon as possible</td> 244 </tr> 245 <tr> 246 <td><a href="#decode">--decode</a></td> 247 <td>Input=mp3 file, output=wav</td> 248 </tr> 249 <tr> 250 <td><a href="#decode-mp3delay">--decode-mp3delay</a> samples</td> 251 <td>Set the encoder delay to use to decode 252 the input .mp3 file 253 </td> 254 </tr> 255 <tr> 256 <td><a href="#t_deco">-t</a></td> 257 <td>Disable writing wav header when using --decode</td> 258 </tr> 259 <tr> 260 <td><a href="#noasm">--noasm</a> type</td> 261 <td>Disable assembly optimizations for mmx/3dnow/sse</td> 262 </tr> 263 <tr> 264 <th colspan="2">Noise shaping & psycho acoustic algorithms</th> 265 </tr> 266 <tr> 267 <td><a href="#q">-q</a> number</td> 268 <td>number = 0...9. Default -q 3<br/> 269 -q 0: Highest quality, very slow<br/> 270 -q 9: Poor quality, but fast<br/> 271 Please, see notes in the detailed description 272 </td> 273 </tr> 274 <tr> 275 <td><a href="#m">-m</a> mode</td> 276 <td><b>j</b>oint, <b>s</b>imple, <b>f</b>orce, <b>d</b>ual-mono, 277 <b>m</b>ono, <b>l</b>eft, <b>r</b>ight. default is <b>j</b>.<br/> 278 joint = joins the best possible of MS and LR stereo<br/> 279 simple = force LR stereo on all frames<br/> 280 force = force MS stereo on all frames. 281 </td> 282 </tr> 283 <tr> 284 <th colspan="2">Filter and resampling options:</th> 285 </tr> 286 <tr> 287 <td><a href="#resample">--resample</a> sfreq</td> 288 <td>Sampling frequency of output file(kHz)- 289 default=automatic 290 </td> 291 </tr> 292 <tr> 293 <td><a href="#lowpass">--lowpass</a> number</td> 294 <td>Frequency(kHz), lowpass filter cutoff above freq. 295 Range [0.001..50]kHz or [50..50000]Hz 296 </td> 297 </tr> 298 <tr> 299 <td><a href="#lowpass">--lowpass</a>-width number</td> 300 <td>Frequency(kHz), lowpass window width. Range [0.001..16]kHz or 301 [16..50000]Hz - (See further restriction in the detailed explanation) 302 </td> 303 </tr> 304 <tr> 305 <td><a href="#highpass">--highpass</a> number</td> 306 <td>Frequency(kHz), highpass filter cutoff below freq. Range [0.001..16]kHz or 307 [16..50000]Hz (See further restriction in the detailed explanation) 308 </td> 309 </tr> 310 <tr> 311 <td><a href="#highpass">--highpass</a>-width number</td> 312 <td>Frequency(kHz), highpass window width - (See further restriction in the detailed explanation)</td> 313 </tr> 314 <tr> 315 <th colspan="2">ID3 tag Information</th> 316 </tr> 317 <tr> 318 <td><a href="#tt">--tt</a> title</td> 319 <td>Audio/song title (max 30 chars for version 1 tag)</td> 320 </tr> 321 <tr> 322 <td><a href="#ta">--ta</a> artist</td> 323 <td>Audio/song artist (max 30 chars for version 1 tag)</td> 324 </tr> 325 <tr> 326 <td><a href="#tl">--tl</a> album</td> 327 <td>Audio/song album (max 30 chars for version 1 tag)</td> 328 </tr> 329 <tr> 330 <td><a href="#ty">--ty</a> year</td> 331 <td>Audio/song year of issue (1 to 9999)</td> 332 </tr> 333 <tr> 334 <td><a href="#tc">--tc</a> comment</td> 335 <td>User-defined text (max 30 chars for v1 tag, 28 for v1.1)</td> 336 </tr> 337 <tr> 338 <td><a href="#tn">--tn</a> track[/total]</td> 339 <td>Audio/song track number and (optionally) the total 340 number of tracks on the original recording.<br/> (track 341 and total each 1 to 255. just the track number 342 creates v1.1 tag, providing a total forces v2.0). 343 </td> 344 </tr> 345 <tr> 346 <td><a href="#tg">--tg</a> genre</td> 347 <td>Audio/song genre (name or number in list)</td> 348 </tr> 349 <tr> 350 <td><a href="#ti">--ti</a> file</td> 351 <td>Audio/song albumArt (jpeg/png/gif file, 128KB max, v2.3)</td> 352 </tr> 353 <tr> 354 <td><a href="#tv">--tv</a> id=value</td> 355 <td>Text or URL frame specified by id and value (v2.3 tag). User defined frame. Syntax: --tv "TXXX=description=content"</td> 356 </tr> 357 <tr> 358 <td><a href="#add-id3v2">--add-id3v2</a></td> 359 <td>Force addition of version 2 tag</td> 360 </tr> 361 <tr> 362 <td><a href="#id3v1-only">--id3v1-only</a></td> 363 <td>Add only a version 1 tag</td> 364 </tr> 365 <tr> 366 <td><a href="#id3v2-only">--id3v2-only</a></td> 367 <td>Add only a version 2 tag</td> 368 </tr> 369 <tr> 370 <td><a href="#id3v2-latin1">--id3v2-latin1</a></td> 371 <td>Add following options in ISO-8859-1 text encoding</td> 372 </tr> 373 <tr> 374 <td><a href="#id3v2-utf16">--id3v2-utf16</a></td> 375 <td>Add following options in unicode text encoding</td> 376 </tr> 377 <tr> 378 <td><a href="#space-id3v1">--space-id3v1</a></td> 379 <td>Pad version 1 tag with spaces instead of nulls</td> 380 </tr> 381 <tr> 382 <td><a href="#pad-id3v2-size">--pad-id3v2-size</a> n</td> 383 <td>Adds ID3v2 tag with n padding bytes</td> 384 </tr> 385 <tr> 386 <td><a href="#genre-list">--genre-list</a></td> 387 <td>Print alphabetically sorted ID3 genre list and exit</td> 388 </tr> 389 <tr> 390 <td><a href="#ignore-tag-errors">--ignore-tag-errors</a></td> 391 <td>Ignore errors in values passed for tags</td> 392 </tr> 393 <tr> 394 <td colspan="2"> 395 Note: A version 2 tag will NOT be added unless one of the input fields 396 won't fit in a version 1 tag (e.g. the title string is longer than 30 397 characters), or the '--add-id3v2' or '--id3v2-only' options are used, 398 or output is redirected to stdout. 399 </td> 400 </tr> 401 <tr> 402 <th colspan="2">MP3 header/stream options:</th> 403 </tr> 404 <tr> 405 <td><a href="#e">-e</a> mode</td> 406 <td>De-emphasis n/5/c (obsolete)</td> 407 </tr> 408 <tr> 409 <td><a href="#c">-c</a></td> 410 <td>Mark as copyright</td> 411 </tr> 412 <tr> 413 <td><a href="#o">-o</a></td> 414 <td>Mark as non-original</td> 415 </tr> 416 <tr> 417 <td><a href="#p">-p</a></td> 418 <td>Error detection. adds 16 bit checksum to every frame 419 (the checksum is computed correctly) 420 </td> 421 </tr> 422 <tr> 423 <td><a href="#strictly-enforce-ISO">--strictly-enforce-ISO</a></td> 424 <td>Comply as much as possible to ISO MPEG spec</td> 425 </tr> 426 <tr> 427 <td><a href="#replaygain-fast">--replaygain-fast</a></td> 428 <td>Compute RG fast but slightly inaccurately (default)</td> 429 </tr> 430 <tr> 431 <td><a href="#replaygain-accurate">--replaygain-accurate</a><a href="#note1"><sup>1</sup></a></td> 432 <td>Compute RG 433 more accurately and find the peak sample 434 </td> 435 </tr> 436 <tr> 437 <td><a href="#noreplaygain">--noreplaygain</a></td> 438 <td>Disable ReplayGain analysis</td> 439 </tr> 440 <tr> 441 <td><a href="#clipdetect">--clipdetect</a><a href="#note1"><sup>1</sup></a></td> 442 <td>Enable 443 --replaygain-accurate and print a message whether 444 clipping occurs and how far the waveform is from full scale 445 </td> 446 </tr> 447 <tr> 448 <th colspan="2">Verbosity:</th> 449 </tr> 450 <tr> 451 <td><a href="#disptime">--disptime</a> secs</td> 452 <td>Print progress report every secs seconds</td> 453 </tr> 454 <tr> 455 <td><a href="#nohist">--nohist</a></td> 456 <td>Disable VBR histogram display</td> 457 </tr> 458 <tr> 459 <td><a href="#silent">--silent</a> / <a href="#quiet">--quiet</a></td> 460 <td>Don't print anything on screen</td> 461 </tr> 462 <tr> 463 <td><a href="#verbose">--verbose</a></td> 464 <td>Print a lot of useful information</td> 465 </tr> 466 <tr> 467 <td><a href="#version">--version</a> / <a href="#license">--license</a></td> 468 <td>Print License information</td> 469 </tr> 470 <tr> 471 <td><a href="#help">--help</a> / <a href="#usage">--usage</a></td> 472 <td>Shows the common list of switches. Add <i>id3</i> or <i>dev</i> to get help for a specified topic</td> 473 </tr> 474 <tr> 475 <td><a href="#longhelp">--longhelp</a></td> 476 <td>Shows the complete list of switches</td> 477 </tr> 478 <tr> 479 <th colspan="2">Experimental switches for developers. Only enabled in alpha/debug 480 versions. Can change from version to version 481 </th> 482 </tr> 483 <tr> 484 <td>--nores</td> 485 <td>Disables the bit reservour. Each frame will become independent from previous ones, but the quality will be lower.</td> 486 </tr> 487 <tr> 488 <td>--buffer-constraint <i>x</i></td> 489 <td>available values for <i>x</i>: default, strict, maximum</td> 490 </tr> 491 <tr> 492 <td>--noath</td> 493 <td>turns ATH down to a flat noise floor</td> 494 </tr> 495 <tr> 496 <td>--athshort</td> 497 <td>ignore GPSYCHO for short blocks, use ATH only</td> 498 </tr> 499 <tr> 500 <td>--athonly</td> 501 <td>ignore GPSYCHO completely, use ATH only</td> 502 </tr> 503 <tr> 504 <td>--athtype x</td> 505 <td>selects between different ATH types [0-4]</td> 506 </tr> 507 <tr> 508 <td>--athlower x</td> 509 <td>Lower the ATH by x.x dB's</td> 510 </tr> 511 <tr> 512 <td>--athaa-type n</td> 513 <td>ATH auto adjust: 0 'no' else 'loudness based'</td> 514 </tr> 515 <tr> 516 <td>--athaa-sensitivity x</td> 517 <td>activation offset in -/+ dB for ATH auto-adjustment</td> 518 </tr> 519 <tr> 520 <td>--short</td> 521 <td>Allow the use of short blocs (default)</td> 522 </tr> 523 <tr> 524 <td>--noshort</td> 525 <td>Disable use of short blocks</td> 526 </tr> 527 <tr> 528 <td>--allshort</td> 529 <td>Use only short blocks</td> 530 </tr> 531 <tr> 532 <td>--shortthreshold x[,y]</td> 533 <td>short block switching threshold, x for L/R/M channel, y for S channel</td> 534 </tr> 535 <tr> 536 <td>--temporal-masking x</td> 537 <td>x=0 disables, x=1 enables temporal masking effect</td> 538 </tr> 539 <tr> 540 <td>--notemp</td> 541 <td>Alias of --temporal-masking 0</td> 542 </tr> 543 <tr> 544 <td>--nssafejoint</td> 545 <td>M/S switching criterion</td> 546 </tr> 547 <tr> 548 <td>--nsmsfix x</td> 549 <td>M/S switching tuning [effective 0-3.5]</td> 550 </tr> 551 <tr> 552 <td>--ns-bass x</td> 553 <td>Adjust masking for sfbs 0 - 6 (long) 0 - 5 (short)</td> 554 </tr> 555 <tr> 556 <td>--ns-alto x</td> 557 <td>Adjust masking for sfbs 7 - 13 (long) 6 - 10 (short)</td> 558 </tr> 559 <tr> 560 <td>--ns-treble x</td> 561 <td>Adjust masking for sfbs 14 - 21 (long) 11 - 12 (short)</td> 562 </tr> 563 <tr> 564 <td>--ns-sfb21 x</td> 565 <td>Change ns-treble by x dB for sfb21</td> 566 </tr> 567 <tr> 568 <td>-Z [n]</td> 569 <td>always do calculate short block maskings</td> 570 </tr> 571 <tr> 572 <td>--substep</td> 573 <td>use pseudo substep noise shaping method types 0-2</td> 574 </tr> 575 <tr> 576 <td>-X n[,m]</td> 577 <td>selects between different noise measurements n for long block, m for short. if m is omitted, m = n</td> 578 </tr> 579 <tr> 580 <td>--vbr-new</td> 581 <td>In LAME 3.98, the new VBR was made default, and this switch may be used for experimental tweaks.</td> 582 </tr> 583 <tr> 584 <th colspan="2">Aliases and removed settings</th> 585 </tr> 586 <tr> 587 <td>-f</td> 588 <td>Alias of <a href="#q">-q 7</a>.</td> 589 </tr> 590 <tr> 591 <td>-h</td> 592 <td>Alias of <a href="#q">-q 2</a>.</td> 593 </tr> 594 <tr> 595 <td>-v</td> 596 <td>Alias of <a href="#V">-V 4</a></td> 597 </tr> 598 <tr> 599 <td>-S</td> 600 <td>Alias of <a href="#silent">--silent</a></td> 601 </tr> 602 <tr> 603 <td>--alt-preset</td> 604 <td>Alias of <a href="#preset">--preset</a></td> 605 </tr> 606 <tr> 607 <td>--r3mix</td> 608 <td>Alias of <a href="#V">-V 3</a></td> 609 </tr> 610 <tr> 611 <td>--vbr-mtrh</td> 612 <td>Alias of LAME 3.98 default vbr mode</td> 613 </tr> 614 <tr> 615 <td>--pad-id3v2</td> 616 <td>Alias of <a href="#pad-id3v2-size">--pad-id3v2-size 128</a></td> 617 </tr> 618 <tr> 619 <td>-d</td> 620 <td>No longer supported</td> 621 </tr> 622 <tr> 623 <td>-k</td> 624 <td>No longer supported</td> 625 </tr> 626 <tr> 627 <td>--cwlimit</td> 628 <td>No longer supported</td> 629 </tr> 630 <tr> 631 <td>--ogginput</td> 632 <td>No longer supported. Compile with 633 <a href="http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/">libsndfile</a> instead 634 </td> 635 </tr> 636 <tr> 637 <td>--brief</td> 638 <td>Currently unused</td> 639 </tr> 640 <tr> 641 <td>--interch x</td> 642 <td>Currently unused</td> 643 </tr> 644 <tr> 645 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">--nspsytune</td> 646 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">Currently unused</td> 647 </tr> 648 </table> 649 <h3>Detailed description in alphabetical order</h3> 650 <p class="settingtitle"> 651 <a name="a"><span class="hilight">-a</span></a> Downmix 652 </p> 653 <p> 654 mix the stereo input file to mono and encode as mono.<br/> 655 </p> 656 <p> 657 This option is only needed in the case of raw PCM stereo input 658 (because LAME cannot determine the number of channels in the input file). 659 To encode a stereo PCM input file as mono, use "lame -m m -a"<br/> 660 </p> 661 <p> 662 For WAV and AIFF input files, using "-m m" will always produce a 663 mono .mp3 file from both mono and stereo input. 664 </p> 665 <p class="settingtitle"> 666 <a name="abr"><span class="hilight">--abr n</span></a> Average bitrate encoding (aka Safe VBR) 667 </p> 668 <p> 669 turns on encoding with a targeted average bitrate of n kbps, allowing 670 to use frames of different sizes. The allowed range of n is 8...320 671 kbps, you can use any integer value within that range. 672 </p> 673 <p class="settingtitle"> 674 <a name="add-id3v2"><span class="hilight">--add-id3v2</span></a> Force addition of version 2 tag 675 </p> 676 <p> 677 Tells LAME to add the tag information as id3v2. This implies adding both, a version 1 678 and a version 2 tag, if the values fit on a version 1 tag. See --id3v1-only and 679 --id3v2-only if you want a more fine-grained control. 680 </p> 681 <p class="settingtitle"> 682 <a name="b"><span class="hilight">-b n</span></a> Bitrate 683 </p> 684 <table cellpadding="5"> 685 <tr> 686 <th>Codec</th> 687 <th>sample frequencies (kHz)</th> 688 <th>bitrates (kbps)</th> 689 </tr> 690 <tr> 691 <td>MPEG-1 layer III </td> 692 <td>32, 48, 44.1</td> 693 <td>32 40 48 56 64 80 96 112 128 160 192 224 256 320</td> 694 </tr> 695 <tr> 696 <td>MPEG-2 layer III</td> 697 <td> 16, 24, 22.05</td> 698 <td> 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 80 96 112 128 144 160</td> 699 </tr> 700 <tr> 701 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">MPEG-2.5 layer III</td> 702 <td style="border-bottom:0px;"> 8, 12, 11.025</td> 703 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64</td> 704 </tr> 705 </table> 706 <p> 707 The bitrate to be used. Default is 128kbps in MPEG1 (64 for mono), 708 64kbps in MPEG2 (32 for mono) and 32kbps in MPEG2.5 (16 for mono). 709 </p> 710 <p> 711 When used with variable bitrate encodings (VBR), -b specifies the 712 minimum bitrate to use. This is useful only if you need to circumvent 713 a buggy hardware device with strange bitrate constrains. (You will need the -F setting too for digital silence).<br/> 714 Default for ABR/VBR is the minimum allowed bitrate for the MPEG version. (i.e. no limit) 715 </p> 716 <p class="settingtitle"> 717 <a name="B"><span class="hilight">-B n</span></a> Max bitrate 718 </p> 719 <p> 720 see also option "-b" for allowed bitrates. 721 </p> 722 <p> 723 Maximum allowed bitrate when using VBR/ABR. 724 </p> 725 <p> 726 Using -B is NOT RECOMMENDED. A 128 kbps CBR bitstream, because of the 727 bit reservoir, can actually have frames which use as many bits as a 728 320 kbps frame. ABR/VBR modes minimize the use of the bit reservoir, and 729 thus need to allow 320 kbps frames to get the same flexibility as CBR 730 streams. This is useful only if you need to circumvent a buggy hardware 731 device with strange bitrate constrains.<br/> 732 Default value is the maximum allowed bitrate for the MPEG versio (i.e. no limit) 733 </p> 734 <p class="settingtitle"> 735 <a name="big-endian"><span class="hilight">--big-endian</span></a> Set the byte order to big-endian. 736 </p> 737 <p> 738 This switch tells LAME that the RAW pcm input is encoded in big-endian instead 739 of little-endian. 740 </p> 741 <p class="settingtitle"> 742 <a name="bitwidth"><span class="hilight">--bitwidth</span></a> Sets the bitwidth value 743 </p> 744 <p> 745 With RAW pcm input, this switch lets specify the bitwidth of the same (8 bits, 746 16 bits...) 747 </p> 748 <p class="settingtitle"> 749 <a name="c"><span class="hilight">-c</span></a> copyright flag 750 </p> 751 <p> 752 mark the encoded file as copyrighted 753 </p> 754 <p class="settingtitle"> 755 <a name="cbr"><span class="hilight">--cbr</span></a> Enforce constant bitrate encoding 756 </p> 757 <p>This switch disables the VBR encoding. Examples:</p> 758 <pre>lame -V 0 --cbr input.wav</pre> 759 Will encode at -b 128 (ignore completely -V and encode at default bitrate) 760 <pre>lame --preset 160 --cbr</pre> 761 Will encode at -b 160 (ignore ABR and use the specified bitrate) 762 <pre>lame --abr 200 --cbr</pre> 763 Will encode at -b 192 (ignore ABR and use the nearest bitrate to the one specified) 764 <p class="settingtitle"> 765 <a name="clipdetect"><span class="hilight">--clipdetect</span></a> Clipping detection 766 </p> 767 <p> 768 Enable --replaygain-accurate and print a message whether clipping 769 occurs and how far in dB the waveform is from full scale. 770 </p> 771 <p> 772 This option is not usable if the MP3 decoder was <b>explicitly</b> disabled 773 in the build of LAME. 774 </p> 775 <p> 776 See also: --replaygain-accurate 777 </p> 778 <p class="settingtitle"> 779 <a name="comp"><span class="hilight">--comp x</span></a> Indicate a compression ratio instead of a bitrate 780 </p> 781 <p> 782 Use this in place of the -b setting if you prefer to indicate a compression ratio (integer value). 783 The ratio is the value of <sup>original-filesize</sup>/<sub>desired-filesize</sub> 784 </p> 785 <p class="settingtitle"> 786 <a name="decode"><span class="hilight">--decode</span></a> MP3 decode capability 787 </p> 788 <p> 789 This uses LAME's HIP<a href="#note2"><sup>2</sup></a> decoder to decode an MP3 (layers 1, 2 and 3) file to a wav file. 790 </p> 791 <p> 792 If -t is used (disable wav header), LAME will output 793 raw pcm in native endian format (use -x to swap bytes). 794 </p> 795 <p> 796 This option is not usable if the MP3 decoder was <b>explicitly</b> disabled 797 in the build of LAME. 798 </p> 799 <p class="settingtitle"> 800 <a name="decode-mp3delay"><span class="hilight">--decode-mp3delay x</span></a> Indicate a different encoder delay 801 for decoding 802 </p> 803 <p> 804 When decoding an mp3 file, LAME automatically corrects for the start delay that 805 the encoder had to put into it.<br/> 806 This setting lets you specify a different delay than LAME's own one, so that it 807 is possible to compensate for the delay of mp3's generated with other encoders. 808 </p> 809 <p class="settingtitle"> 810 <a name="disptime"><span class="hilight">--disptime secs</span></a> Update the display each secs 811 </p> 812 <p> 813 Use this setting to change the frequency that LAME updates the display when 814 encoding a file. Allows decimal values (like 0.5) 815 </p> 816 <p class="settingtitle"> 817 <a name="e"><span class="hilight">-e n/5/c</span></a> Write the de-emphasis flag 818 </p> 819 <p> 820 n = (none, default)<br/> 821 5 = 50/15 microseconds<br/> 822 c = ccitt j.17<br/> 823 </p> 824 <p> 825 All this does is set a flag in the bitstream. If you have a PCM 826 input file where one of the above types of (obsolete) emphasis has 827 been applied, you can set this flag in LAME. Then the mp3 decoder 828 should de-emphasize the output during playback, although most 829 decoders ignore this flag. 830 </p> 831 <p> 832 A better solution would be to apply the de-emphasis with a standalone 833 utility before encoding, and then encode without -e. 834 </p> 835 <p class="settingtitle"> 836 <a name="F"><span class="hilight">-F</span></a> Enforce the minimum bitrate 837 </p> 838 <p> 839 Enforces the minimum bitrate. Without this option, passages of analog 840 silence will be encoded at the minimum bitrate possible (32 or 8, depending on 841 MPEG version). 842 </p> 843 <p class="settingtitle"> 844 <a name="flush"><span class="hilight">--flush</span></a> Flush the output stream as soon as possible 845 </p> 846 <p> 847 This setting forces a flush of the data written as soon as the operation has 848 finished. This is mostly useful in case of streams. With files, it may degrade 849 performance, since the OS has to write to disk in smaller chunks. 850 </p> 851 <p class="settingtitle"> 852 <a name="freeformat"><span class="hilight">--freeformat</span></a> Encode to freeformat stream 853 </p> 854 <p> 855 LAME will produce a fixed bitrate, free format bitstream. 856 User must specify the desired bitrate in kbps, which can 857 be any integer between 8 and 640. 858 </p> 859 <p> 860 Not supported by most decoders. Compliant decoders (of which there 861 are few) are only required to support up to 320 kbps. 862 </p> 863 <p> 864 Decoders knwon to handle free format: 865 </p> 866 <table cellpadding="4"> 867 <tr> 868 <th></th> 869 <th>Supports up to</th> 870 </tr> 871 <tr> 872 <td>MAD</td> 873 <td>640 kbps</td> 874 </tr> 875 <tr> 876 <td>"lame --decode"</td> 877 <td>640 kbps</td> 878 </tr> 879 <tr> 880 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">l3dec</td> 881 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">310 kbps</td> 882 </tr> 883 </table> 884 <p class="settingtitle"> 885 <a name="gain"><span class="hilight">--gain</span></a> Apply gain in decibels. 886 </p> 887 <p> 888 Apply Gain adjustment in decibels, range -20.0 to +12.0. 0dBFS means no amplification. 889 </p> 890 <p class="settingtitle"> 891 <a name="genre-list"><span class="hilight">--genre-list</span></a> Print alphabetical ordered list of 892 known genres 893 </p> 894 <p> 895 Tell LAME to print the list of genres with their index to be used with the --tg 896 setting. 897 </p> 898 <table cellpadding="4"> 899 <tr> 900 <td style="border-bottom-width:0px;">123 Acappella<br /> 901 34 Acid<br /> 902 74 Acid Jazz<br /> 903 73 Acid Punk<br /> 904 99 Acoustic<br /> 905 20 Alternative<br /> 906 40 Alternative Rock<br /> 907 26 Ambient<br /> 908 145 Anime<br /> 909 90 Avantgarde<br /> 910 116 Ballad<br /> 911 41 Bass<br /> 912 135 Beat<br /> 913 85 Bebob<br /> 914 96 Big Band<br /> 915 138 Black Metal<br /> 916 89 Bluegrass<br /> 917 0 Blues<br /> 918 107 Booty Bass<br /> 919 132 BritPop<br /> 920 65 Cabaret<br /> 921 88 Celtic<br /> 922 104 Chamber Music<br /> 923 102 Chanson<br /> 924 97 Chorus<br /> 925 136 Christian Gangsta<br /> 926 61 Christian Rap<br /> 927 141 Christian Rock<br /> 928 32 Classical<br /> 929 1 Classic Rock<br /> 930 112 Club<br /> 931 128 Club-House<br /> 932 57 Comedy<br /> 933 140 Contemporary Christian<br /> 934 2 Country<br /> 935 139 Crossover<br /> 936 58 Cult 937 </td> 938 <td style="border-bottom-width:0px;"> 939 3 Dance<br /> 940 125 Dance Hall<br /> 941 50 Darkwave<br /> 942 22 Death Metal<br /> 943 4 Disco<br /> 944 55 Dream<br /> 945 127 Drum & Bass<br /> 946 122 Drum Solo<br /> 947 120 Duet<br /> 948 98 Easy Listening<br /> 949 52 Electronic<br /> 950 48 Ethnic<br /> 951 54 Eurodance<br /> 952 124 Euro-House<br /> 953 25 Euro-Techno<br /> 954 84 Fast Fusion<br /> 955 80 Folk<br /> 956 115 Folklore<br /> 957 81 Folk-Rock<br /> 958 119 Freestyle<br /> 959 5 Funk<br /> 960 30 Fusion<br /> 961 36 Game<br /> 962 59 Gangsta<br /> 963 126 Goa<br /> 964 38 Gospel<br /> 965 49 Gothic<br /> 966 91 Gothic Rock<br /> 967 6 Grunge<br /> 968 129 Hardcore<br /> 969 79 Hard Rock<br /> 970 137 Heavy Metal<br /> 971 7 Hip-Hop<br /> 972 35 House<br /> 973 100 Humour<br /> 974 131 Indie 975 </td> 976 <td style="border-bottom-width:0px;"> 977 19 Industrial<br /> 978 33 Instrumental<br /> 979 46 Instrumental Pop<br /> 980 47 Instrumental Rock<br /> 981 8 Jazz<br /> 982 29 Jazz+Funk<br /> 983 146 JPop<br /> 984 63 Jungle<br /> 985 86 Latin<br /> 986 71 Lo-Fi<br /> 987 45 Meditative<br /> 988 142 Merengue<br /> 989 9 Metal<br /> 990 77 Musical<br /> 991 82 National Folk<br /> 992 64 Native US<br /> 993 133 Negerpunk<br /> 994 10 New Age<br /> 995 66 New Wave<br /> 996 39 Noise<br /> 997 11 Oldies<br /> 998 103 Opera<br /> 999 12 Other<br /> 1000 75 Polka<br /> 1001 134 Polsk Punk<br /> 1002 13 Pop<br /> 1003 53 Pop-Folk<br /> 1004 62 Pop/Funk<br /> 1005 109 Porn Groove<br /> 1006 117 Power Ballad<br /> 1007 23 Pranks<br /> 1008 108 Primus<br /> 1009 92 Progressive Rock<br /> 1010 67 Psychedelic<br /> 1011 93 Psychedelic Rock<br /> 1012 43 Punk<br /> 1013 121 Punk Rock 1014 </td> 1015 <td style="border-bottom-width:0px;"> 1016 15 Rap<br /> 1017 68 Rave<br /> 1018 14 R&B<br /> 1019 16 Reggae<br /> 1020 76 Retro<br /> 1021 87 Revival<br /> 1022 118 Rhythmic Soul<br /> 1023 17 Rock<br /> 1024 78 Rock & Roll<br /> 1025 143 Salsa<br /> 1026 114 Samba<br /> 1027 110 Satire<br /> 1028 69 Showtunes<br /> 1029 21 Ska<br /> 1030 111 Slow Jam<br /> 1031 95 Slow Rock<br /> 1032 105 Sonata<br /> 1033 42 Soul<br /> 1034 37 Sound Clip<br /> 1035 24 Soundtrack<br /> 1036 56 Southern Rock<br /> 1037 44 Space<br /> 1038 101 Speech<br /> 1039 83 Swing<br /> 1040 94 Symphonic Rock<br /> 1041 106 Symphony<br /> 1042 147 SynthPop<br /> 1043 113 Tango<br /> 1044 18 Techno<br /> 1045 51 Techno-Industrial<br /> 1046 130 Terror<br /> 1047 144 Thrash Metal<br /> 1048 60 Top 40<br /> 1049 70 Trailer<br /> 1050 31 Trance<br /> 1051 72 Tribal<br /> 1052 27 Trip-Hop<br /> 1053 28 Vocal 1054 </td> 1055 </tr> 1056 </table> 1057 <p class="settingtitle"> 1058 <a name="help"><span class="hilight">--help</span></a> Print the command line help. 1059 </p> 1060 <p> 1061 Print the short command line help and exit. 1062 </p> 1063 <p class="settingtitle"> 1064 <a name="highpass"><span class="hilight">--highpass number</span></a> Use a highpass filter when encoding 1065 </p> 1066 <p> 1067 Enables a highpass filter of the specified frequency when encoding the source. 1068 Range [0.001..50]kHz or [50..50000]Hz.<br/> 1069 This is usually not required, and the gains are usually minimal. May be useful to 1070 remove an interference signal on 50Hz or 60Hz, or a DC offset. (default: disabled)<br/> 1071 Note: The current implementation has a minimum highpass frequency of (67.5/62)% of the sample rate 1072 (I.e. 481Hz at 44Khz). 1073 </p> 1074 <p class="settingtitle"> 1075 <a name="highpass-width"><span class="hilight">--highpass-width width</span></a> Set the width of the decaying curve. 1076 </p> 1077 <p> 1078 Specify the width in Hz of the decaying curve of the highpass. Range [16..50000]Hz<br/> 1079 The minimum (and default) width is 75% of a band's width (which is 1/64th of the sample rate).<br/> 1080 Note: See the remark in the --highpass command above. 1081 </p> 1082 <p class="settingtitle"> 1083 <a name="id3v1-only"><span class="hilight">--id3v1-only</span></a> Disable the use of id3v2. 1084 </p> 1085 <p> 1086 Put it before any tag setting.<br/> 1087 This setting tells LAME to use ID3 v1 tag only, and not create an ID3v2 even if 1088 it thinks it should. 1089 </p> 1090 <p class="settingtitle"> 1091 <a name="id3v2-only"><span class="hilight">--id3v2-only</span></a> Disable the user ov id3v1. 1092 </p> 1093 <p> 1094 Put it before any tag setting.<br/> 1095 This setting tells LAME to use ID3 v2 tag only. An ID3 v1 tag would not be written. 1096 </p> 1097 <p class="settingtitle"> 1098 <a name="ignore-tag-errors"><span class="hilight">--ignore-tag-errors</span></a> Ignore tag information errors 1099 </p> 1100 <p> 1101 Put it before any tag setting.<br/> 1102 This tells lame to ignore the tag information that sees as erroneous and continue 1103 encoding without those. Without this setting, errors are reported and encoding 1104 does not start. 1105 </p> 1106 <p class="settingtitle"> 1107 <a name="license"><span class="hilight">--license</span></a> Print the license page 1108 </p> 1109 <p> 1110 Prints version and license information about LAME encoder. 1111 </p> 1112 <p class="settingtitle"> 1113 <a name="little-endian"><span class="hilight">--little-endian</span></a> Set the byte order to little-endian. 1114 </p> 1115 <p> 1116 This switch tells LAME that the RAW pcm input is encoded in little-endian. It is 1117 the default setting. 1118 </p> 1119 <p class="settingtitle"> 1120 <a name="longhelp"><span class="hilight">--longhelp</span></a> Shows the detailed help 1121 </p> 1122 <p> 1123 Prints a help page with all of the command-line switches and a brief explanation 1124 of them. 1125 </p> 1126 <p class="settingtitle"> 1127 <a name="lowpass"><span class="hilight">--lowpass number</span></a> Use a lowpass filter when encoding 1128 </p> 1129 <p> 1130 Enables a lowpass filter of the specified frequency when encoding the source. 1131 Range [0.001..50]kHz or [50..50000]Hz<br /> 1132 </p> 1133 <p> 1134 Using a lowpass filter helps reducing the amount of data to encode. This is 1135 important in MP3 due to a limitation in very high frequencies (>16Khz). The 1136 default value depends on the target bitrate/quality. It is not recommended to 1137 change it as a general basis. 1138 </p> 1139 <p class="settingtitle"> 1140 <a name="lowpass-width"><span class="hilight">--lowpass-width width</span></a> Set the width of the decaying curve. 1141 </p> 1142 <p> 1143 Specify the width in Hz of the decaying curve of the lowpass. Range [0.001..16]kHz or [16..50000]Hz <br/> 1144 The lowpass is in the center of this curve. 1145 The minimum (and default) width is 75% of a band's width (which is 1/64th of the sample rate). 1146 </p> 1147 <p class="settingtitle"> 1148 <a name="m"><span class="hilight">-m x</span></a> Channel modes 1149 </p> 1150 <table cellpadding="4"> 1151 <tr> 1152 <td width="35px">-m m</td> 1153 <td>mono</td> 1154 </tr> 1155 <tr> 1156 <td>-m l</td> 1157 <td>get only the left channel of a stereo signal for a mono output</td> 1158 </tr> 1159 <tr> 1160 <td>-m r</td> 1161 <td>get only the right channel of a stereo signal for a mono output</td> 1162 </tr> 1163 <tr> 1164 <td>-m s</td> 1165 <td>forced L/R stereo</td> 1166 </tr> 1167 <tr> 1168 <td>-m j /<br/>-m a</td> 1169 <td>automatic switch between L/R and M/S stereo</td> 1170 </tr> 1171 <tr> 1172 <td>-m f</td> 1173 <td>forced mid/side stereo</td> 1174 </tr> 1175 <tr> 1176 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">-m d</td> 1177 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">dual (independent) channels.</td> 1178 </tr> 1179 </table> 1180 <p> 1181 MONO is the default mode for mono input files. If "-m m" is specified 1182 for a stereo input file, the two channels will be averaged into a mono 1183 signal. (Note: See comments about the -a switch for RAW PCM streams) 1184 </p> 1185 <p> 1186 FORCED L/R STEREO encodes the left and the right signals independently, and 1187 gives more or less bits to each, depending on the currently available. 1188 </p> 1189 <p> 1190 JOINT STEREO is the default mode of encoding. jstereo means the encoder can use 1191 (on a frame by frame basis) either L/R stereo or mid/side stereo. 1192 In mid/side stereo, the mid (L+R) and side (L-R) 1193 channels are encoded, and more bits are allocated to the mid channel 1194 than the side channel. When there isn't too much stereo separation, this effectively 1195 increases the bandwidth, so having higher quality with the same amount of bits.<br/> 1196 Using mid/side stereo inappropriately can result in audible 1197 compression artifacts. Too much switching between mid/side and regular 1198 stereo can also sound bad. To determine when to switch to mid/side 1199 stereo, LAME uses a much more sophisticated algorithm than the one 1200 described in the ISO documentation. 1201 </p> 1202 <p> 1203 FORCED MID/SIDE STEREO forces all frames to be encoded with mid/side stereo. It 1204 should only be used if you are sure every frame of the input file 1205 has very little stereo seperation. 1206 </p> 1207 <p> 1208 DUAL CHANNEL mode is similar to encode the left and right as two mono signals. 1209 Its purpose was meant for Dual language streams where only one of them should be decoded. 1210 Most decoders just decode them as a stereo stream 1211 </p> 1212 <p class="settingtitle"> 1213 <a name="mp1input"><span class="hilight">--mp1input</span></a> 1214 <a name="mp2input"><span class="hilight">--mp2input</span></a> 1215 <a name="mp3input"><span class="hilight">--mp3input</span></a> MPEG layer I, II or III input file 1216 </p> 1217 <p> 1218 Assume the input file is an MP1/2/3 file. LAME will decode the input file 1219 before re-encoding it. Since MP3 is a lossy format, this is 1220 not recommended in general. But it is useful for creating low bitrate 1221 mp3s from high bitrate mp3s. If the filename ends in ".mp3" LAME will assume 1222 it is an MP3. For stdin or MP3 files which don't end in .mp3 you need 1223 to use this switch. 1224 </p> 1225 <p class="settingtitle"> 1226 <a name="noasm"><span class="hilight">--noasm value</span></a> Disables the specified assembler 1227 instructions 1228 </p> 1229 <p> 1230 When the encoder is compiled with assembler optimizations, this setting allows 1231 to disable them at runtime (They are only enabled if the CPU supports them). 1232 The purpose of this setting is to detect problems in those optimizations, and/or 1233 check the speed difference. 1234 </p> 1235 <p class="settingtitle"> 1236 <a name="nogap"><span class="hilight">--nogap file1 file2 [...]</span></a> Encodes multiple continuous 1237 files. 1238 </p> 1239 <p> 1240 Encodes multiple files (ordered by position) which are meant to be played 1241 gaplessly. 1242 </p> 1243 <p> 1244 By default, LAME will encode the files with accurate length, but the first and 1245 last frame may contain a few erroneous samples for signals that don't fade-in/out 1246 (as is the case of continuous playback). 1247 </p> 1248 <p> 1249 This setting solves that by using the samples from the next/previous file to 1250 compute the encoding. 1251 </p> 1252 <p class="settingtitle"> 1253 <a name="nogapout"><span class="hilight">--nogapout dir</span></a> Specify a directory for the output 1254 of the files encoded with --nogap 1255 </p> 1256 <p> 1257 This setting should precede --nogap, and is used to specify the alternate 1258 directory where to store the encoded files. The default one is the input file 1259 directory. 1260 </p> 1261 <p class="settingtitle"> 1262 <a name="nogaptags"><span class="hilight">--nogaptags</span></a> Enables the use of VBR tags with files 1263 encoded with --nogap 1264 </p> 1265 <p> 1266 Tells LAME to put VBR tags to encoded files if they are encoded in VBR or ABR 1267 modes. Else, using the --nogap option doesn't generate it. 1268 </p> 1269 <p class="settingtitle"> 1270 <a name="nohist"><span class="hilight">--nohist</span></a> Disable bitrate Histogram 1271 </p> 1272 <p> 1273 By default, LAME will display a bitrate histogram while producing 1274 VBR mp3 files. This will disable that feature. 1275 </p> 1276 <p class="settingtitle"> 1277 <a name="noreplaygain"><span class="hilight">--noreplaygain</span></a> Disable ReplayGain analysis 1278 </p> 1279 <p> 1280 By default ReplayGain analysis is enabled. This switch disables it. 1281 </p> 1282 <p> 1283 See also: --replaygain-accurate, --replaygain-fast 1284 </p> 1285 <p class="settingtitle"> 1286 <a name="o"><span class="hilight">-o</span></a> non-original 1287 </p> 1288 <p> 1289 Mark the encoded file as a copy 1290 </p> 1291 <p class="settingtitle"> 1292 <a name="p"><span class="hilight">-p</span></a> CRC error detection 1293 </p> 1294 <p> 1295 Turn on CRC error protection. 1296 It will add a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code in each frame, allowing to 1297 detect transmission errors that could occur on the MP3 stream. However, it 1298 takes 16 bits per frame that would otherwise be used for encoding, and then 1299 will slightly reduce the sound quality. 1300 </p> 1301 <p class="settingtitle"> 1302 <a name="pad-id3v2"><span class="hilight">--pad-id3v2</span></a> Pad ID3v2 tag. 1303 </p> 1304 <p> 1305 Pads the ID3v2 tag with extra 128bytes to allow it to expand. 1306 </p> 1307 <p class="settingtitle"> 1308 <a name="preset"><span class="hilight">--preset x</span></a> Enable one of the presets 1309 </p> 1310 <table cellpadding="4"> 1311 <tr> 1312 <th>Setting</th> 1313 <th>Meaning</th> 1314 </tr> 1315 <tr> 1316 <td>--preset medium</td> 1317 <td>-V 5 --vbr-old</td> 1318 </tr> 1319 <tr> 1320 <td>--preset standard</td> 1321 <td>-V 2 --vbr-old</td> 1322 </tr> 1323 <tr> 1324 <td>--preset extreme</td> 1325 <td>-V 0 --vbr-old</td> 1326 </tr> 1327 <tr> 1328 <td>--preset insane</td> 1329 <td>-b 320 --vbr-old</td> 1330 </tr> 1331 <tr> 1332 <td>--preset fast xxx</td> 1333 <td>In versions older than LAME 3.98, "fast" was needed to enable the vbr-new routine. It is no longer needed.</td> 1334 </tr> 1335 <tr> 1336 <td colspan="2"> </td> 1337 </tr> 1338 <tr> 1339 <td>--preset number</td> 1340 <td>--abr number</td> 1341 </tr> 1342 <tr> 1343 <td>--preset cbr number</td> 1344 <td>-b number</td> 1345 </tr> 1346 <tr> 1347 <th colspan="2">Old compatibility settings. Meaningless</th> 1348 </tr> 1349 <tr> 1350 <td>--preset phone</td> 1351 <td>-b 16 -m m</td> 1352 </tr> 1353 <tr> 1354 <td>--preset phon+ / lw / mw-eu</td> 1355 <td>-b 24 -m m</td> 1356 </tr> 1357 <tr> 1358 <td>--preset mw-us</td> 1359 <td>-b 40 -m m</td> 1360 </tr> 1361 <tr> 1362 <td>--preset voice</td> 1363 <td>-b 56 -m m</td> 1364 </tr> 1365 <tr> 1366 <td>--preset fm / radio</td> 1367 <td>-b 112</td> 1368 </tr> 1369 <tr> 1370 <td>--preset hifi</td> 1371 <td>-b 160</td> 1372 </tr> 1373 <tr> 1374 <td>--preset cd</td> 1375 <td>-b 192</td> 1376 </tr> 1377 <tr> 1378 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">--preset studio</td> 1379 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">-b 256</td> 1380 </tr> 1381 </table> 1382 <p class="settingtitle"> 1383 <a name="priority"><span class="hilight">--priority value</span></a> Set process priority 1384 </p> 1385 <p> 1386 (Windows and OS/2 only) 1387 </p> 1388 <p> 1389 Sets the process priority for LAME while running under Windows and/or IBM OS/2. 1390 This can be very useful to avoid the system becoming slow and/or 1391 unresponsive. By setting LAME to run in a lower priority, you leave 1392 more time for the system to update basic processing (drawing windows, 1393 polling keyboard/mouse, etc). The impact in LAME's performance is 1394 minimal if you use priority 0 to 2. 1395 </p> 1396 <p> 1397 The valid parameters are: 1398 </p> 1399 <table cellpadding="4"> 1400 <thead> 1401 <tr> 1402 <th></th> 1403 <th>Priority</th> 1404 <th>Windows</th> 1405 <th>OS/2</th> 1406 </tr> 1407 </thead> 1408 <tbody> 1409 <tr> 1410 <td>0</td> 1411 <td>Low priority </td> 1412 <td>IDLE_PRIORITY_CLASS</td> 1413 <td>IDLE, delta = 0</td> 1414 </tr> 1415 <tr> 1416 <td>1</td> 1417 <td>Medium priority </td> 1418 <td>IDLE_PRIORITY_CLASS</td> 1419 <td>IDLE, delta = +31</td> 1420 </tr> 1421 <tr> 1422 <td>2</td> 1423 <td>Regular priority </td> 1424 <td>NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS</td> 1425 <td>REGULAR, delta = -31</td> 1426 </tr> 1427 <tr> 1428 <td>3</td> 1429 <td>High priority </td> 1430 <td>HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS</td> 1431 <td>REGULAR, delta = 0</td> 1432 </tr> 1433 <tr> 1434 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">4</td> 1435 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">Maximum priority </td> 1436 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS</td> 1437 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">REGULAR, delta = +31</td> 1438 </tr> 1439 </tbody> 1440 </table> 1441 <p> 1442 Note that if you call '--priority' without a parameter, then 1443 priority 0 will be assumed. 1444 </p> 1445 <p class="settingtitle"> 1446 <a name="q"><span class="hilight">-q n</span></a> Algorithm quality selection 1447 </p> 1448 <p> 1449 Bitrate is of course the main influence on quality. The higher the bitrate, 1450 the higher the quality. But for a given bitrate, we have a choice of algorithms 1451 to determine the best scalefactors and Huffman coding (noise shaping). 1452 </p> 1453 <p> 1454 For CBR, ABR and --vbr-old modes, the following table applies 1455 </p> 1456 <table cellpadding="4"> 1457 <tr> 1458 <td>-q 0</td> 1459 <td>Use the best algorithms (Best Huffman coding search, full outer loop, and the highest precision of several parameters).</td> 1460 </tr> 1461 <tr> 1462 <td>-q 1 to -q 4</td> 1463 <td>Similar to -q 0 without the full outer loop and with decreasing precision of parameters the further from -q 0. -q 3 is the default</td> 1464 </tr> 1465 <tr> 1466 <td>-q 5 and -q 6</td> 1467 <td>Same as -q 7, but enables noise shaping and increases subblock gain</td> 1468 </tr> 1469 <tr> 1470 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">-q 7 to -q 9</td> 1471 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">Same as -f. Very fast, OK quality. Psychoacoustics are used for pre-echo and mid/side stereo, but no noise-shaping is done.</td> 1472 </tr> 1473 </table> 1474 <p> 1475 For the default VBR mode since LAME 3.98, the following table applies 1476 </p> 1477 <table cellpadding="4"> 1478 <tr> 1479 <td>-q 0 to -q 4</td> 1480 <td>include all features of the other modes and additionally use the best search when applying Huffman coding.</td> 1481 </tr> 1482 <tr> 1483 <td>-q 5 and -q 6</td> 1484 <td> include all features of -q7, calculate and consider actual quantisation noise, and additionally enable subblock gain.</td> 1485 </tr> 1486 <tr> 1487 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">-q 7 to -q 9</td> 1488 <td style="border-bottom:0px;">This level uses a psymodel but does not calculate quantisation noise when encoding: it takes a quick guess.</td> 1489 </tr> 1490 </table> 1491 <p class="settingtitle"> 1492 <a name="quiet"><span class="hilight">--quiet</span></a> Don't print any output in the screen 1493 </p> 1494 <p> 1495 Disables the screen output. Useful for job processing or other times where 1496 screen output is undesirable. 1497 </p> 1498 <p class="settingtitle"> 1499 <a name="r"><span class="hilight">-r</span></a> Input file is raw pcm 1500 </p> 1501 <p> 1502 Assume the input file is raw pcm. Sampling rate and mono/stereo 1503 must be specified on the command line. Without -r, LAME will perform 1504 several fseek()'s on the input file looking for WAV and AIFF headers. 1505 </p> 1506 <p> 1507 Not supported if LAME is compiled to use LIBSNDFILE. 1508 </p> 1509 <p class="settingtitle"> 1510 <a name="replaygain-accurate"><span class="hilight">--replaygain-accurate</span></a> Slightly more accurate 1511 ReplayGain analysis and finding the peak sample 1512 </p> 1513 <p> 1514 Compute "Radio" ReplayGain on the decoded data stream. Find the peak sample 1515 by decoding on the fly the encoded data stream and store it in the file. 1516 </p> 1517 <p> 1518 ReplayGain analysis does _not_ affect the content of a compressed data 1519 stream itself, it is a value stored in the header of a sound file. 1520 Information on the purpose of ReplayGain and the algorithms used is 1521 available from http://www.replaygain.org/ 1522 </p> 1523 <p> 1524 By default, LAME performs ReplayGain analysis on the input data (after 1525 the user-specified volume scaling). This behaviour might give slightly 1526 inaccurate results because the data on the output of a lossy 1527 compression/decompression sequence differs from the initial input data. 1528 When --replaygain-accurate is specified the mp3 stream gets decoded on 1529 the fly and the analysis is performed on the decoded data stream. 1530 Although theoretically this method gives more accurate results, it has 1531 several disadvantages: 1532 </p> 1533 <ul> 1534 <li>tests have shown that the difference between the ReplayGain values 1535 computed on the input data and decoded data is usually no greater 1536 than 0.5dB, although the minimum volume difference the human ear 1537 can perceive is about 1.0dB 1538 </li> 1539 <li>decoding on the fly significantly slows down the encoding process</li> 1540 </ul> 1541 The apparent advantage is that: 1542 <ul> 1543 <li> with --replaygain-accurate the peak sample is determined and 1544 stored in the file. The knowledge of the peak sample can be useful 1545 to decoders (players) to prevent a negative effect called 'clipping' 1546 that introduces distortion into sound. 1547 </li> 1548 </ul> 1549 <p> 1550 Only the "Radio" ReplayGain value is computed. It is stored in the LAME tag. 1551 The analysis is performed with the reference volume equal to 89dB. 1552 Note: the reference volume has been changed from 83dB on transition 1553 from version 3.95 to 3.95.1. 1554 </p> 1555 <p> 1556 This option is not usable if the MP3 decoder was _explicitly_ disabled 1557 in the build of LAME. (Note: if LAME is compiled without the MP3 decoder, 1558 ReplayGain analysis is performed on the input data after user-specified 1559 volume scaling). 1560 </p> 1561 <p> 1562 See also: --replaygain-fast, --noreplaygain, --clipdetect 1563 </p> 1564 <p class="settingtitle"> 1565 <a name="replaygain-fast"><span class="hilight">--replaygain-fast</span></a> Fast ReplayGain analysis 1566 </p> 1567 <p> 1568 Compute "Radio" ReplayGain of the input data stream after user-specified 1569 volume scaling and/or resampling. 1570 </p> 1571 <p> 1572 ReplayGain analysis does _not_ affect the content of a compressed data 1573 stream itself, it is a value stored in the header of a sound file. 1574 Information on the purpose of ReplayGain and the algorithms used is 1575 available from http://www.replaygain.org/ 1576 </p> 1577 <p> 1578 Only the "Radio" ReplayGain value is computed. It is stored in the LAME tag. 1579 The analysis is performed with the reference volume equal to 89dB. 1580 Note: the reference volume has been changed from 83dB on transition 1581 from version 3.95 to 3.95.1. 1582 </p> 1583 <p> 1584 This switch is enabled by default. 1585 </p> 1586 <p> 1587 See also: --replaygain-accurate, --noreplaygain 1588 </p> 1589 <p class="settingtitle"> 1590 <a name="resample"><span class="hilight">--resample n</span></a> Output sampling frequency in kHz 1591 </p> 1592 <p> 1593 where n = 8, 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 1594 </p> 1595 <p> 1596 Output sampling frequency. Resample the input if necessary. 1597 </p> 1598 <p> 1599 If not specified, LAME may sometimes resample automatically 1600 when faced with extreme compression conditions (like encoding 1601 a 44.1 kHz input file at 32 kbps). To disable this automatic 1602 resampling, you have to use --resample to set the output sample rate 1603 equal to the input sample rate. In that case, LAME will not 1604 perform any extra computations. 1605 </p> 1606 <p class="settingtitle"> 1607 <a name="s"><span class="hilight">-s n</span></a> Sampling frequency in kHz 1608 </p> 1609 <p> 1610 where n = sampling rate in kHz. 1611 </p> 1612 <p> 1613 Required for raw PCM input files. Otherwise it will be determined 1614 from the header information in the input file. 1615 </p> 1616 <p> 1617 LAME will automatically resample the input file to one of the 1618 supported MP3 sample rates if necessary. 1619 </p> 1620 <p class="settingtitle"> 1621 <a name="scale"><span class="hilight">--scale arg</span></a> 1622 <a name="scale-l"><span class="hilight">--scale-l arg</span></a> 1623 <a name="scale-r"><span class="hilight">--scale-r arg</span></a> Scale the amplitude of the input file 1624 </p> 1625 <p> 1626 Scales input by arg. This just multiplies the PCM data 1627 (after it has been converted to floating point) by arg. 1628 </p> 1629 <p> 1630 arg > 1: increase volume<br/> 1631 arg = 1: no effect<br/> 1632 arg < 1: reduce volume<br/> 1633 </p> 1634 <p> 1635 Use with care, since most MP3 decoders will truncate data 1636 which decodes to values greater than 32768. 1637 </p> 1638 <p> 1639 The <i>l</i> and <i>r</i> variants apply the scaling only to left (channel 0) or right 1640 (channel 1) respectively. 1641 </p> 1642 <p class="settingtitle"> 1643 <a name="signed"><span class="hilight">--signed</span></a> Input RAW uses signed values 1644 </p> 1645 <p> 1646 Use with RAW pcm to indicate if the data is signed (values centered at zero) or 1647 unsigned (all positive values). This is the default value. 1648 </p> 1649 <p class="settingtitle"> 1650 <a name="silent"><span class="hilight">--silent</span></a> Don't print any output in the screen 1651 </p> 1652 <p> 1653 Disables the screen output. Useful for job processing or other times where 1654 screen output is undesirable. 1655 </p> 1656 <p class="settingtitle"> 1657 <a name="space-id3v1"><span class="hilight">--space-id3v1</span></a> Use spaces for padding. 1658 </p> 1659 <p> 1660 Use spaces instead of null values for padding data in an ID3v1 tag. 1661 </p> 1662 <p class="settingtitle"> 1663 <a name="strictly-enforce-ISO"><span class="hilight">--strictly-enforce-ISO</span></a> Strict ISO compliance 1664 </p> 1665 <p> 1666 With this option, LAME will enforce the 7680 bit limitation on 1667 total frame size. This results in many wasted bits for 1668 high bitrate encodings. Some decoders need it. 1669 </p> 1670 <p class="settingtitle"> 1671 <a name="t"><span class="hilight">-t</span></a> Disable VBR tag or disable WAV header 1672 </p> 1673 <p>This setting has two different uses:</p> 1674 <p> 1675 When encoding to VBR, this setting disables writing the VBR Tag (also known as XING tag). 1676 This tag is embedded by default in the frame 0 of the MP3 file. It lets VBR aware players 1677 to correctly seek and compute playing times in such files.<br/> 1678 </p> 1679 <p> 1680 When decoding MP3 to WAV using --decode, this flag will 1681 disable writing the WAV header. The output will be raw pcm, 1682 native endian format. Use -x to swap bytes. 1683 </p> 1684 <p class="settingtitle"> 1685 <a name="T"><span class="hilight">-T</span></a> Force the usage of the LAME tag 1686 </p> 1687 <p> 1688 By default, LAME already adds a LAME tag when encoding. 1689 This setting overrides the -t setting, and implies --nogaptags. 1690 </p> 1691 <p class="settingtitle"> 1692 <a name="unsigned"><span class="hilight">--unsigned</span></a> Input RAW uses unsigned values 1693 </p> 1694 <p> 1695 Use with RAW pcm to indicate if the data is signed (values centered at zero) or 1696 unsigned (all positive values). 1697 </p> 1698 <p class="settingtitle"> 1699 <a name="usage"><span class="hilight">--usage</span></a> Print the command line help. 1700 </p> 1701 <p> 1702 Print the short command line help and exit. 1703 </p> 1704 <p class="settingtitle"> 1705 <a name="V"><span class="hilight">-V n</span></a> Enable VBR encoding 1706 </p> 1707 <p> 1708 Encodes using the VBR algorithm, at the indicated quality.<br/> 1709 0=highest quality, bigger files. 9.999=lowest quality, smaller files. Decimal values can be specified, like: 4.51<br/> 1710 On average, the resulting bitrates are as follows: 1711 <table cellpadding="4"> 1712 <thead> 1713 <tr> 1714 <th>Setting</th> 1715 <th>Average bitrate (kbps)</th> 1716 </tr> 1717 </thead> 1718 <tbody> 1719 <tr> 1720 <td align="right">0</td> 1721 <td align="right">245</td> 1722 </tr> 1723 <tr> 1724 <td align="right">2</td> 1725 <td align="right">190</td> 1726 </tr> 1727 <tr> 1728 <td align="right">3</td> 1729 <td align="right">175</td> 1730 </tr> 1731 <tr> 1732 <td align="right">4</td> 1733 <td align="right">165</td> 1734 </tr> 1735 <tr> 1736 <td style="border-bottom:0px;" align="right">5</td> 1737 <td style="border-bottom:0px;" align="right">130</td> 1738 </tr> 1739 </tbody> 1740 </table> 1741 </p> 1742 <p> 1743 Using -V 7 or higher (lower quality) is not recommended. 1744 ABR usually produces better results. 1745 </p> 1746 <p class="settingtitle"> 1747 <a name="vbr-old"><span class="hilight">--vbr-old</span></a> Uses the old VBR method of encoding 1748 </p> 1749 <p> 1750 Tells LAME to encode to VBR using the old (slower) method of encoding. 1751 </p> 1752 <p class="settingtitle"> 1753 <a name="verbose"><span class="hilight">--verbose</span></a>Program verbosity 1754 </p> 1755 <p> 1756 Print a lot of information on screen. 1757 </p> 1758 <p class="settingtitle"> 1759 <a name="version"><span class="hilight">--version</span></a> Prints the license page 1760 </p> 1761 <p> 1762 Prints version and license information about LAME encoder. 1763 </p> 1764 <p class="settingtitle"> 1765 <a name="x"><span class="hilight">-x</span></a> Swap input bytes 1766 </p> 1767 <p> 1768 swap bytes in the input file (and output file when using --decode). 1769 For sorting out little endian/big endian type problems. If your 1770 encodings sound like static, try this first. 1771 </p> 1772 <p class="settingtitle"> 1773 <a name="Y"><span class="hilight">-Y</span></a> Ignore noise in sbf21, like CBR mode does 1774 </p> 1775 <p> 1776 Allows -V2, -V1 and -V0 to not encode the highest frequencies accurately, 1777 if doing so causes disproportional increases in bitrate. This is the same that 1778 CBR and ABR modes do.<br/> 1779 Due to the design of the MP3 format, to keep precision in the last scalefactor 1780 band, an encoder needs to increase the precision in all the bands (not only in 1781 this one).<br/> 1782 The consequence is an increase of bitrate (+60kbps in some cases) compared to 1783 not keeping that precision. Generally, this band should allow for distortions, 1784 so using this switch shouldn't cause harm. 1785 </p> 1786 <p> </p> 1787 <div id="notes"> 1788 <ol> 1789 <li><a name="note1"></a>If compiled with decoding capabilities</li> 1790 <li><a name="note2"></a>HIP stands for Hip Isn't a Player and is based off of 1791 Michael Hipp's <a href="http://www.mpg123.de">mpglib 0.2a</a> 1792 </li> 1793 </ol> 1794 </div> 1795</div> 1796<div id="footer"> 1797 1798<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/lame"><img src="images/sflogo.gif" 1799 alt="Get LAME (Lame Aint an MP3 Encoder) at SourceForge.net. Fast, secure and Free Open Source software downloads" 1800 border="0" height="30" width="120" /></a> 1801 1802<a href="http://validator.w3.org/#validate_by_upload"><img src="images/valid-xhtml10.png" 1803 alt="Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional" border="0" height="31" width="88" /></a> 1804 1805<a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/"><img src="images/valid-css.png" 1806 alt="Valid CSS!" border="0" height="31" width="88" /></a> 1807 1808<p>HTML markup and design by <a 1809href="http://www.rarewares.org" target="_blank">Roberto Amorim</a> and <a 1810href="http://www.maresweb.de" target="_blank">Sebastian Mares</a>. Logo by <a 1811href="http://www.brightercreative.co.uk">Sam Fisher</a>.</p> 1812 1813</div> 1814</div> 1815 1816 </body> 1817</html> 1818
