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[tlongacre]

I had to reinstall everything on my computer, which caused me to look at settings in MC I've not looked at in awhile. I went to change the Encoding settings to my usual MP3 VBR, but it's not an option anymore. I changed to MP3 and it said it had to install the encoder, I said fine and that worked. But how do I get back VBR? I went to the website, but there is no plugin for MC11.

[Alex B]

The new MP3 encoding system is one of the MC 11 improvements. It is VBR by default.

Do you have this in MP3 options?



The first option "Quality" uses VBR with the "--preset" switches and gives the best possible VBR MP3 audio quality.

More information about the changes in this thread:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=24291

[IanG]

It's gone!  I don't know when it changed, but 11.0.127 doesn't have it.

Ian G.

[Alex B]

It would be better like this:

[Matt]

It would be better like this:

Nice.  Look for an update next build.

[Alex B]

Thanks.

I would like to see some lower quality VBR options too.

The whole set from "-V 9" to "-V 0" might be too many,

 (I suggested that here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=24526;start=msg171088#msg171088)

but two more would be good to have. Those who know what they are doing can always use the "Custom" option.

E.g.

Very Low  uses "-V 8"

Low  uses "-V 6"

Medium  uses "--preset medium"  (The name should be "Medium", not "Normal" as it is now)

High  uses "--preset standard"  (this is the recommended "normal" and pretty much transparent setting)

Extreme  uses "--preset extreme"

[Matt]

The -V type switches don't play nicely with the --preset fast switch.  You can always use ABR to make low bitrate MP3s.

[Alex B]

It is OK for me.

Perhaps ABR is better for encoding files for limited capacity mobile devices etc.
VBR is unpredictable.

However:
Very Low & fast mode = -V 8 --vbr-new
Low & fast mode = -V 6 --vbr-new

Thanks.

[tlongacre]

Oh, thank you so much. I didn't switch to MC11 at the beginning, just about a month ago or so, so I missed a lot of the early conversation.

Question --

what does "preset fast standard" mean -- I guess I'm wondering what "standard" means. If I want highest quality, I should choose Extreme and not fast, yes?

Thanks.

[Alex B]

"High" (--preset standard) setting makes usually transparent encodings. That means that they are often indistinguishable from the original (according to many listening tests).

"Extreme" (--preset extreme) uses even more bits and provides some safety margin. It is the best possible VBR quality setting.

If "High" has quality problems with occasional problem tracks, it is quite possible that the problems are not repairable by using more bits. Those tracks may need lossless encoding for transparent quality.

"Fast" uses a different new VBR encoding system. That system is not proved to be at the same quality level with the older system. It is faster, so it is a good option for mass conversions (e.g. for mobile devices). The quality is OK and it is difficult to find any difference.

[Alex B]

I just noticed this post at Hydrogen Audio Forums:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=29984&st=0&p=259537&#entry259537

In that thread LAME developer Gabriel and some others are discussing among other things about LAME graphical front-ends/rippers and the GUI guidelines given.

I think that MC11 is the first application ever that has MP3 encoding interface which follows (loosely) those guidelines. Actually MC has even better interface because it clearly gives priority to VBR presets (when Quality is chosen) and has an easy to use option for a custom command line.