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<h2 class="hilight">Common and recommended switches</h2>
</div>
<h3>Common settings</h3>
<pre>
% lame <span class="hilight">[options]</span> inputfile [outputfile]
</pre>
<ul>
<li><strong>Constant Bitrate</strong>: <span class="hilight">-b number</span> or
<span class="hilight">--preset cbr number</span> Valid values
for the -b settings depend on the sampling rate<a href="#note1"><sup>1</sup></a>.
<pre>lame -b 128 sample.wav sample.mp3</pre>
</li>
<li><strong>Variable Bitrate (<a href="abr.html">ABR</a> mode)</strong>:
<span class="hilight">--abr number</span> or <span class="hilight">--preset number</span>
Valid values for the --abr setting range from 8 to 320.
<pre>lame --abr 128 sample.wav sample.mp3</pre>
</li>
<li><strong>Variable Bitrate (<a href="vbr.html">VBR</a> mode)</strong>:
<span class="hilight">-V number</span> Valid values
are from 0 to 9, with decimal values possible, where 0 is the highest quality
while 9.999 is the lowest one.
<pre>lame -V2 sample.wav sample.mp3</pre>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Hydrogenaudio recommended settings</h3>
<ul>
<strong>Very high quality</strong>, HiFi, home, or quiet listening, with best file size<a href="#note2"></a> :
<span class="hilight">-V0</span> (avg. 245 kbps) or <span class="hilight">-V1</span>
(avg. 225 kbps) or <span class="hilight">-V2</span> (avg. 190 kbps) or <span class="hilight">-V3</span> (avg. 175 kbps).
<p>VBR settings will normally produce transparent results.
Audible differences between these presets may exist, but are rare.
</p>
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<li>
<strong>Very high quality</strong>, HiFi, home, or quiet listening, with maximum file size<a href="#note2"><sup>2</sup></a> :
<span class="hilight">-b 320</span>
<p>This CBR mode will maximize the MP3's bitrate and overall file
size. The extra space may allow for some parts of the audio to be
compressed with fewer sacrifices, but to date, no one has produced
ABX test results demonstrating that perceived quality is ever better
than the highest VBR profiles described above.
</p>
</li>
<li><strong>Portable</strong>, listening in noisy conditions, lower bitrate, smaller file size:
<span class="hilight">-V4</span> (avg. 160 kbps) or <span class="hilight">-V5</span>
(avg. 130 kbps) or <span class="hilight"> -V6</span> (avg. 115 kbps)
<p>
-V6 produces an "acceptable" quality, while -V4 should be close to perceptual transparency.
</p>
</li>
<li><strong>Very low bitrate, small sizes</strong>, eg. for voice, radio, mono encoding :
<span class="hilight">--abr 80</span> (stereo) or <span class="hilight">--abr 56 -m m</span> (mono)
<p>
For very low bitrates, up to 100kbps, ABR is most often the best solution.
--preset voice is only available in the command line front-end, and
is there for compatibility. It is currently mapped to --abr 56 -mm,
so that means that the recommendation would be to encode in mono,
and use ABR.
</p>
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<div id="notes">
<ol>
<li><a name="note1"></a>
<table cellpadding="5">
<tr><th>Codec</th>
<th>sample frequencies (kHz)</th>
<th>bitrates (kbps)</th></tr>
<tr><td>MPEG-1 layer III </td> <td>32, 44.1, 48</td>
<td>32 40 48 56 64 80 96 112 128 160 192 224 256 320</td></tr>
<tr><td>MPEG-2 layer III</td><td> 16, 22.05, 24</td>
<td> 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 80 96 112 128 144 160</td></tr>
<tr><td style="border-bottom:0px;">MPEG-2.5 layer III</td><td style="border-bottom:0px;"> 8, 11.025, 12</td>
<td style="border-bottom:0px;">8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64</td></tr>
</table>
</li>
<li><a name="note2"></a>Lossy codecs, like MP3, should not be used for archiving,
since the nature of lossy encoding always changes the original sound, even if it
sounds transparent. Use lossless codecs for this purpose.
</li>
</ol>
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