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[Rands]

For those of you who are compressing using an external lame.exe, does anyone happen to know if there's a command line switch to cause lame to take up fewer cpu cycles?  I don't mind the compressing taking longer but it's causing my machine to slow down and that's annoying!

[Wobbley]

As far as I know, the compression settings (--alt-preset standard, etc.) are directly correlated with the number of CPU cycles required to encode the file based on the complexity of the encoding parameters.

Wobbley

[nila]

Play with Razorlame - if it's an option in there then just use it in MC - Razorlame pretty much is the full GUI for lame with all options.

[Rands]

I think he's asking for Lame to use less CPU cycles for a given amount of time, not less CPU cycles overall.

Try using the "start" command with the "/low" switch.

That is what I'm looking for.  Unfortunately, MC doesn't seem to work with "start" in the External Encoder settings.

[xen-uno]

Chimp is talking about system thread level priority, not a LAME encoder option. Setting thread priority is difficult because LAME is dynamic (runs than closes). LAME (like all encoders) is designed to encode as fast as possible (thread level is hardcoded). Really the best you can do is just have LAME get the job done fast...and from what I've read around here and HA, 3.93.1 is much faster than 3.92 (which I use). I think you'll just have to live with it. You could use the -fast option with alt pre std...or encode at lower bit rates. What you gain in speed you'll give up in quality (generally). If you DL the LAME zip, it will have an HTML file with all the encoder options listed...check it out.

10^-27

[Rands]

I'm running LAME 3.90.3 based on some recommendations about better encoding quality.  I've got the latest LAME exe laying around too.  I'll give that a shot and see if there's a noticable difference.

Thanks for the help guys.

[LisaRCT]

Actually dbPowerAMP music converter allows you to select the processor thread priority level to no less than 7 (yes I said seven) different settings . . . .  
pause/idle/low/below normal/normal/above normal/high
that should take care of about any of your needs.  It would be a nice MC enhancement someday  

I often start several clusters of files at low levels and walk away. . .  that way if there is a 'bad file' in the batch only that one cluster stops transcoding/encoding.
It also handles some codecs not regularly supported elsewhere.

[MachineHead]

I'm running LAME 3.90.3 based on some recommendations about better encoding quality.

I'm pretty sure this version of LAME has been extensively tuned, and tested, for --alt-preset standard. It includes the -z switch which is about the only difference from 3.90.2.

Neither version is exceptionally fast. But they are supposed to churn out the 'highest' quality ap standard files.

3.93.1 is compiled for more speed. It still makes a high quality ap standard file. Though it hasn't been tested nearly as much as the others mentioned.

LAME alpha 4.06 was around for awhile. This is even faster than 3.93.1. But at alpha stage it is not recommended for anything but a quick test. No pun intended.

Also a thought:

Why not batch convert when you are away from your computer? Cycles don't mean diddly when you aren't staring at the thing. Easy, reliable, and fast - compress to APE and convert using whatever your favorite LAME version of the moment is. You come back and can have several hundred files just waiting for you.

[Rands]

Why not batch convert when you are away from your computer? Cycles don't mean diddly when you aren't staring at the thing. Easy, reliable, and fast - compress to APE and convert using whatever your favorite LAME version of the moment is. You come back and can have several hundred files just waiting for you.

I've never thought about that.  I've also never used APE and know very little about it.  

I tend to rip on a "oh hey, I want to hear this now" basis so instead of playing the CD, I rip and add to my library.  I rarely rip tons of stuff at once.   So usually I'm at my machine working (I telecommute) and want to rip and play something while I'm doing other things.

Switching to --preset fast extreme (yes, I use extreme;  yes, I have good ears;  yes, I have good equipment;  yes, I have the space for the larger files) has helped quite a bit.

[JimH]

I've never thought about that.  I've also never used APE and know very little about it.  

You can get the APE (Monkey's Audio) encoder plug-in here:
http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/downloads/mcplugins.pl?type=7&start=0&end=10&page=1

You won't regret it.  It's faster than MP3 or WMA encoding and it's perfect quality (same as the CD).  The only disadvantage is the size.  It uses about 1GB for every 3 CD's (on average).

[MachineHead]

I've never thought about that.

heh heh heh.

(Sorry Rands, I don't mean to single you out here. Just an example of the complexity of MC, and in no way mean anything by my blurb here.)

One of the things many users of MC know are panes. I can sort. I can come up with a view scheme that has 12 panes. Etc., etc.

But the some of the grunt work tools that MC has available are nearly unknown. More emphasis should be made of these. Really.

Rands-

Try the ape thing for your files. You may even want to keep some extra special ones in that format. It is amazing how fast Monkey's is for encoding.

[Rands]

You won't regret it.  It's faster than MP3 or WMA encoding and it's perfect quality (same as the CD).  The only disadvantage is the size.  It uses about 1GB for every 3 CD's (on average).

But the some of the grunt work tools that MC has available are nearly unknown. More emphasis should be made of these. Really.

The only thing that stops me from ripping in APE or MPC or OGG (or anything else) is that my iPod doesn't support any of that nor does my Kenwood car stereo (which does support MP3 CDs).

I know I could convert to MP3 when I needed to but most people strongly advise against transcoding files from one format to another due to a loss in quality.  Plus it's a just an extra step.  Sometimes I'm heading out the door and suddenly realize I really, really want to listen to a particular album.

I could keep two copies but that's just an unnecessary waste of space and "bookkeeping."  So I suffer with MP3.

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments.  Switching to --preset fast extreme seems to have helped out quite a lot.

[MachineHead]

The only thing that stops me from ripping in APE or MPC or OGG (or anything else) is that my iPod doesn't support any of that nor does my Kenwood car stereo (which does support MP3 CDs).

Rio is about to release an Ogg & Flac compatible player. Two models 20GB and 40 GB.

I know I could convert to MP3 when I needed to but most people strongly advise against transcoding files from one format to another due to a loss in quality.

This is usually only for something like mp3 to ogg. Or any other lossy format to another lossy format. I believe MC does on the fly conversions to the iPod. Podders?

[Doof]

I know I could convert to MP3 when I needed to but most people strongly advise against transcoding files from one format to another due to a loss in quality.

Well that's the beauty of using APE. There is no loss in quality (in the sense that you are talking about) when you transcode from APE to any other format.

Think of it this way. Your PC can only play back WAV files. When MC (or any other media player) encounters an MP3, it has to decode that MP3 to WAV and then it can play it back. It's all seemless to you, but that's what's going on behind the scenes.

When you encode from CD to MP3, you lose quality, because MP3 is a lossy encoder. The same goes for WMA. So when the PC attempts playback of an MP3 or WMA file, it decodes it to WAV first. The resulting WAV file is inferior to the original WAV file that was generated from ripping the track from the CD.

So when you transcode from MP3 to WMA, the PC decodes the MP3 to WAV, then re-encodes that WAV to WMA. During the WAV -> WMA stage, you're starting out with an inferior WAV file, because it came from a quality-challenged MP3.

But APE is completely lossless. When the PC decompresses (not decode) the APE to WAV, it's exactly the same as the WAV you started out with when your first ripped the CD.

So if you transcode from APE to MP3, you'll get the same result that you would have had you gone straight from CD to MP3. In other words, no (extra) quality loss.

[xen-uno]

Re: Mach's link...

The Karma (formerly Rio Pearl...AFAIK) may be hard to get...if not impossible. SonicBlue went under. Denon/Marantz bought the line. Who knows what will happen now. Specs are awesome...Flac & Vorbis support, Ethernet docking station, USB2 port...

10^-27

[JimH]

SonicBlue went under. Denon/Marantz bought the line. Who knows

I think Rio is alive and well.

[Rands]

Doof, thanks for the all the information on APE.  I guess I know more about how MP3s work than I let on but you broke it down in an interesting way I had never thought about before.

It does leave me with the whole process of transcoding if I want to put stuff on my iPod or burn to MP3 CD for my car.

I'm going to experiment with APE anyway.  Maybe it's worth the extra trouble!

[jcoalson]

The only thing that stops me from ripping in APE or MPC or OGG (or anything else) is that my iPod doesn't support any of that nor does my Kenwood car stereo (which does support MP3 CDs).

If your deck is relatively new you could probably hook up a Kenwood MusicKeg, which plays FLAC; you can also get firmware from PhatNoise to play Vorbis (the MusicKeg is a re-branded PhatBox).

Josh

[LisaRCT]

I once asked a lame question

the teacher told me to sit down    



_{can ya tell I am bored??}

[Rands]

If your deck is relatively new you could probably hook up a Kenwood MusicKeg, which plays FLAC; you can also get firmware from PhatNoise to play Vorbis (the MusicKeg is a re-branded PhatBox).

I was just interested in a priority switch for lame.exe not buying new equipment to play alternate formats.

[xen-uno]

Interesting...

I see that Josh (aka Mr. FLAC) has been hanging around here. So Josh, would you be interested in writing a FLAC plugin for MC? Matt (aka Mr. APE) is not likely to. You must be using either MJ or MC and have noticed the glaring lack of support for FLAC.

10^-27

[LisaRCT]

Interesting...

I see that Josh (aka Mr. FLAC) has been hanging around here. So Josh, would you be interested in writing a FLAC plugin for MC? Matt (aka Mr. APE) is not likely to. You must be using either MJ or MC and have noticed the glaring lack of support for FLAC.

Pretty pleeeeez  

[jcoalson]

I see that Josh (aka Mr. FLAC) has been hanging around here. So Josh, would you be interested in writing a FLAC plugin for MC? Matt (aka Mr. APE) is not likely to. You must be using either MJ or MC and have noticed the glaring lack of support for FLAC.

Unfortunately, I don't use MC/MJ... I actually use a Linux box to serve my FLAC collection to a Rio Receiver and am setting up a MythTV box.  I may try out a SliMP3 now that it also supports FLAC.

I don't have a lot of free time lately and priority goes to FLAC hardware support (Rio just announced the Karma, next is probably the Neuros) and open-source software.  I don't even have a good setup for developing an MJ plugin on.  My only windoze box is an old P2-300 running NT4.  I don't want to destabilize it installing even more software.

There are lots of FLAC plugins available with source.  Whoever did the SHN plugin should have no trouble making a FLAC one for MJ.

Josh

[zevele10]

I use DbPowerAmp converter .
I allways set convertion at low priority when i rip using my computer.

I can say that my computer runs as normal, when using it and ripping.