Good settings for encoding to mp3

2012-11-23 by damo

I use lame for encoding my recordings into mp3 format.
I have experimented with many of the options and I have found that the following 3 combinations of command line switches produce excellent results:

Small size, lossy:
lame --alt-preset standard in.wav out.mp3

Good compromise between size and quality (VBR):
lame --alt-preset extreme in.wav out.mp3

Large size, best quality (320k CBR):
lame --alt-preset insane in.wav out.mp3

One thought on “Good settings for encoding to mp3”

1. I have stopped using MP3 format for my recordings because it is not a free/libre format, ie, it is covered by a patent and is restrictive. The OGG format is better because firstly it is a free format and secondly because it plays in all free browsers that support audio tags in HTML5.