LAME

'LAME' is a free software application used to encode audio into the MP3 file format. The name ''LAME'' is a recursive acronym for ''LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder'', reflecting LAME's early history when it was not yet a complete encoder in itself.
As of 2004, consensus amongst the audiophile community is that LAME produces the highest-quality MP3 files for bitrates greater or equal to 128 kbit/s when using variable bitrate encoding; in a public listening test early in 2004, LAME MP3 files were the best 128 kbit/s MP3 files compared to the uncompressed original audio when using VBR mode.^[1]

Contents

History and development

Legal issues

LAME-compatible software

Unix-Like Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows

Mac OS X

Cross Platform

References

See also

External links

History and development

At one time, LAME was simply a set of patches against the separately distributed ISO demonstration source, hence the claim that it "ain't an encoder". The ISO code had a restrictive license but was available without charge.
In May 2000, the LAME project reimplemented the last of the ISO source code, and thus LAME was then a totally new implementation — compiling recent versions of LAME no longer requires the ISO source code.
As recent LAME releases are no longer a patch against ISO encoder code, LAME is now itself an MP3 encoder and the LAME acronym has become a misnomer.

Legal issues

Like most (if not all) MP3 encoders, LAME may implement technology covered by patents owned by the Fraunhofer Society and other entities.^[2] The developers of LAME do not license themselves the technology described by these patents. Distributing compiled binaries of LAME, its libraries, or programs which are derivative works of LAME in countries which recognize those patents, may be considered infringing on the relevant patents.
The LAME developers state that since their code is only released in source code form, it should only be considered as a description of an MP3 encoder, and thus does not infringe any patent by itself when released as source code only. At the same time, they advise obtaining a patent license for any relevant technologies that LAME may implement before including a compiled version of the encoder into a product.^[3].
In November, 2005 there were reports that the Extended Copy Protection software included on some SONY Compact Discs includes portions of the LAME library without complying with the terms of the LGPL. ''See Extended Copy Protection: GPL and LGPL violations.''

LAME-compatible software

Unix-Like Operating Systems

★ Grip, a front-end for use with GNOME

★ SoundJuicer, part of the GNOME desktop

★ KAudioCreator, part of the KDE desktop

★ K3b, KDE's CD-R and DVD authoring software can rip audio CDs as well

Microsoft Windows

★ RazorLame a Microsoft Windows front-end user interface for the commandline LAME Encoder executable.

★ Lamedrop, easy to use front-end in Windows, similar to oggdrop

★ winLAME

★ ALL2LAME, A minimalist frontend for LAME that allows piping from commandline decoders of other formats, such as FLAC and Monkey's Audio.

★ CDex, Windows CD audio extractor

★ Exact Audio Copy (EAC), Windows audio grabber for CD-ROM drives

★ Audiograbber

★ foobar2000, an audio player that supports transcoding to LAME

★ Burrrn, a simple Cdrdao-based gapless audio CD burning utility that uses LAME in decoding mode to maximize audio quality.

★ Zortam Mp3 Media Studio a front end that integrates LAME with Zortam Mp3 Media Studio on Windows.

★ JRiver Media Center, A Media Player/Manager which supports transcoding to LAME

★ SynthFont, a freeware MIDI file player SoundFont synthesizer which can use LAME to export an audio file in mp3 format.

Mac OS X

★ iTunes-LAME, a front end that integrates LAME with iTunes on Mac OS X.

★ Max is a Macintosh audio extractor with LAME MP3 capabilities.

★ BarbaBatch is an audio file format converter using LAME for mp3 encoding.

Cross Platform

★ jRipper, a Java-based frontend for LAME which includes Windows and GNU/Linux binaries.

★ Audacity, an audio recording, editing and transforming program, available for Windows, GNU, BSD, and Macintosh.

★ Stickloader is another Java-based Lame frontend allowing files to be encoded easily via drag-and-drop.

References

1. http://www.rjamorim.com/test/mp3-128/results.html
2. http://www.mp3licensing.com/
3. http://lame.sourceforge.net/tech-FAQ.txt

See also

★ List of codecs

★ Lossy data compression

★ Audio data compression

External links

★ LAME Website

★ LAME at HydrogenAudio Wiki

★ LAME downloads for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, etc.

★ Historical LAME versions

★ LAME source tarballs

★ LAME Mp3 Info Tag revision 1 Specifications

★ LAME Mirror Site

★ LAME binaries for Mac OS X by Thalictrum

★ LAME Binaries for MS Windows, OSX and Solaris