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  8. <title>Detailed command-line switches</title>
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  34. <h2 class="hilight">Detailed command line switches</h2>
  35. </div>
  36. <h3>Options ordered by feature</h3>
  37. <table class="settings" cellpadding="4">
  38. <tr><th style="width:20%">Setting</th><th>Brief description</th></tr>
  39. <tr><th colspan="2">Input options</th></tr>
  40. <tr><td colspan="2">By default, LAME accepts a PCM audio sample inside a .WAV
  41. container as the input file, in 8, 16, 24 and 32 bits integer and in IEEE FLOAT.
  42. If it is compiled with <a href="http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/">libsndfile</a>,
  43. then it also supports the extra formats that the library supports.<br/>
  44. There is also support for RAW PCM data and and piped input</td></tr>
  45. <tr><td>-</td><td>For piped/streamed Input, use "-" as the input and/or output
  46. file name.</td></tr>
  47. <tr><td>--out-dir path</td><td>If no explicit output file is specified, a file will be written at given path. Ignored when using piped/streamed input</td></tr>
  48. <tr><td><a href="#mp1input">--mp1input</a><a href="#note1"><sup>1</sup></a></td><td>Input file is an MPEG
  49. layer I file. Implicit if extension is .mp1</td></tr>
  50. <tr><td><a href="#mp2input">--mp2input</a><a href="#note1"><sup>1</sup></a></td><td>Input file is an MPEG
  51. layer II file. Implicit if extension is .mp2</td></tr>
  52. <tr><td><a href="#mp3input">--mp3input</a><a href="#note1"><sup>1</sup></a></td><td>Input file is an MPEG
  53. layer III file. Implicit if extension is .mp3</td></tr>
  54. <tr><td><a href="#scale">--scale</a> number</td><td>Scale input (multiply PCM data) by number.</td></tr>
  55. <tr><td><a href="#scale-l">--scale-l</a> number</td><td>Scale channel 0 (left) input (multiply PCM data
  56. ) by number</td></tr>
  57. <tr><td><a href="#scale-r">--scale-r</a> number</td><td>Scale channel 1 (right) input (multiply PCM data)
  58. by number</td></tr>
  59. <tr><td><a href="#gain">--gain</a> number</td><td>apply Gain adjustment in decibels, range -20.0 to +12.0.</td></tr>
  60. <tr><td>--swap-channel</td><td>Swap Left and Right channels</td></tr>
  61. <tr><td><a href="#nogap">--nogap</a> file1 file2 ...</td><td>Gapless encoding for a set of contiguous
  62. files</td></tr>
  63. <tr><td><a href="#nogapout">--nogapout</a> dir</td><td>Output dir for gapless encoding (must precede
  64. --nogap)</td></tr>
  65. <tr><td><a href="#nogaptags">--nogaptags</a></td><td>Allow the use of VBR tags in gapless encoding</td></tr>
  66. <tr><th colspan="2">Input options for RAW PCM</th></tr>
  67. <tr><td><a href="#r">-r</a></td><td>Assume input file is raw PCM.</td></tr>
  68. <tr><td><a href="#s">-s</a> number</td><td>Input sampling frequency in kHz (Default is 44.1Khz)</td></tr>
  69. <tr><td><a href="#signed">--signed</a> / <a href="#unsigned">--unsigned</a></td><td> Input is signed (default) or unsigned</td></tr>
  70. <tr><td><a href="#bitwidth">--bitwidth</a> w</td><td> Input bit width is w (default 16)</td></tr>
  71. <tr><td><a href="#x">-x</a></td><td> Force byte-swapping of input stream</td></tr>
  72. <tr><td><a href="#little-endian">--little-endian</a> / <a href="#big-endian">--big-endian</a></td><td> Input is little-endian (default)
  73. or big-endian</td></tr>
  74. <tr><td><a href="#a">-a</a></td><td>Downmix from stereo to mono file for mono encoding. Needed with RAW input for the -mm mode to do the downmix.</td></tr>
  75. <tr><th colspan="2">Constant Bit Rate (CBR)</th></tr>
  76. <tr><td><a href="#b">-b</a> number</td><td>Set the bitrate in kbps, default 128 kbps</td></tr>
  77. <tr><td><a href="#cbr">--cbr</a></td><td>Enforce use of constant bitrate</td></tr>
  78. <tr><td><a href="#comp">--comp</a> ratio</td><td>Choose bitrate to obtain the specified compression
  79. ratio</td></tr>
  80. <tr><td><a href="#freeformat">--freeformat</a></td><td>Produce a free format bitstream instead of the
  81. standard one. Supported bitrates between 8 and 640 kbps. Scarce support by
  82. decoders.</td></tr>
  83. <tr><th colspan="2">Variable Bit Rate (<a href="abr.html">ABR</a>)</th></tr>
  84. <tr><td><a href="#abr">--abr</a> number</td><td>Specify average bitrate desired (instead of quality)
  85. </td></tr>
  86. <tr><th colspan="2">Variable Bit Rate (<a href="vbr.html">VBR</a>)</th></tr>
  87. <tr><td><a href="#V">-V</a> number</td><td>Quality setting for VBR. default number=4.<br/>
  88. Decimal values can be specified, like: 4.51<br/>
  89. 0=highest quality, bigger files. 9.999=lowest quality,
  90. smaller files</td></tr>
  91. <tr><td><a href="#vbr-old">--vbr-old</a></td><td>Use old variable bitrate (VBR) routine</td></tr>
  92. <tr><td><a href="#b">-b</a> number</td><td>Specify a minimum allowed bitrate. default 32 kbps (See -F setting below)</td></tr>
  93. <tr><td><a href="#B">-B</a> number</td><td>Specify a maximum allowed bitrate. default 320 kbps</td></tr>
  94. <tr><td><a href="#F">-F</a></td><td>Enforce -b option for digital silence frames too, rather than encoding them at 8 or 32 kbps.</td></tr>
  95. <tr><td><a href="#t">-t</a></td><td>Disable VBR informational tag</td></tr>
  96. <tr><td><a href="#T">-T</a></td><td>Enable and force writing LAME Tag</td></tr>
  97. <tr><td><a href="#Y">-Y</a></td><td>Allows -V2, -V1 and -V0 to not to encode the highest frequencies accurately, if doing so causes disproportional increases in bitrate. This is the same that CBR and ABR modes do.</td></tr>
  98. <tr><th colspan="2">Operational options</th></tr>
  99. <tr><td><a href="#preset">--preset</a> type</td><td>Enables some preconfigured settings. Check below
  100. for each of the valid values</td></tr>
  101. <tr><td><a href="#priority">--priority</a> number</td><td>Sets the process priority:<br/>
  102. 0,1 = Low priority <br/>
  103. 2 = normal priority (default)<br/>
  104. 3,4 = High priority </td></tr>
  105. <tr><td><a href="#flush">--flush</a></td><td>Flush output stream as soon as possible</td></tr>
  106. <tr><td><a href="#decode">--decode</a></td><td>Input=mp3 file, output=wav</td></tr>
  107. <tr><td><a href="#decode-mp3delay">--decode-mp3delay</a> samples</td><td>Set the encoder delay to use to decode
  108. the input .mp3 file</td></tr>
  109. <tr><td><a href="#t_deco">-t</a></td><td>Disable writing wav header when using --decode</td></tr>
  110. <tr><td><a href="#noasm">--noasm</a> type</td><td>Disable assembly optimizations for mmx/3dnow/sse</td></tr>
  111. <tr><th colspan="2">Noise shaping &amp; psycho acoustic algorithms</th></tr>
  112. <tr><td><a href="#q">-q</a> number</td><td>number = 0...9. Default -q 3<br/>
  113. -q 0: Highest quality, very slow<br/>
  114. -q 9: Poor quality, but fast<br/>
  115. Please, see notes in the detailed description</td></tr>
  116. <tr><td><a href="#m">-m</a> mode</td><td><b>j</b>oint, <b>s</b>imple, <b>f</b>orce, <b>d</b>ual-mono,
  117. <b>m</b>ono, <b>l</b>eft, <b>r</b>ight. default is <b>j</b>.<br/>
  118. joint = joins the best possible of MS and LR stereo<br/>
  119. simple = force LR stereo on all frames<br/>
  120. force = force MS stereo on all frames.</td></tr>
  121. <tr><th colspan="2">Filter and resampling options:</th></tr>
  122. <tr><td><a href="#resample">--resample</a> sfreq</td><td>Sampling frequency of output file(kHz)-
  123. default=automatic</td></tr>
  124. <tr><td><a href="#lowpass">--lowpass</a> number</td><td>Frequency(kHz), lowpass filter cutoff above freq.
  125. Range [0.001..50]kHz or [50..50000]Hz</td></tr>
  126. <tr><td><a href="#lowpass">--lowpass</a>-width number</td><td>Frequency(kHz), lowpass window width. Range [0.001..16]kHz or
  127. [16..50000]Hz - (See further restriction in the detailed explanation)</td></tr>
  128. <tr><td><a href="#highpass">--highpass</a> number</td><td>Frequency(kHz), highpass filter cutoff below freq. Range [0.001..16]kHz or
  129. [16..50000]Hz (See further restriction in the detailed explanation)</td></tr>
  130. <tr><td><a href="#highpass">--highpass</a>-width number</td><td>Frequency(kHz), highpass window width - (See further restriction in the detailed explanation)</td></tr>
  131. <tr><th colspan="2">ID3 tag Information</th></tr>
  132. <tr><td><a href="#tt">--tt</a> title</td><td>Audio/song title (max 30 chars for version 1 tag)</td></tr>
  133. <tr><td><a href="#ta">--ta</a> artist</td><td>Audio/song artist (max 30 chars for version 1 tag)</td></tr>
  134. <tr><td><a href="#tl">--tl</a> album</td><td>Audio/song album (max 30 chars for version 1 tag)</td></tr>
  135. <tr><td><a href="#ty">--ty</a> year</td><td>Audio/song year of issue (1 to 9999)</td></tr>
  136. <tr><td><a href="#tc">--tc</a> comment</td><td>User-defined text (max 30 chars for v1 tag, 28 for v1.1)</td></tr>
  137. <tr><td><a href="#tn">--tn</a> track[/total]</td><td>Audio/song track number and (optionally) the total
  138. number of tracks on the original recording.<br/> (track
  139. and total each 1 to 255. just the track number
  140. creates v1.1 tag, providing a total forces v2.0).</td></tr>
  141. <tr><td><a href="#tg">--tg</a> genre</td><td>Audio/song genre (name or number in list)</td></tr>
  142. <tr><td><a href="#ti">--ti</a> file</td><td>Audio/song albumArt (jpeg/png/gif file, 128KB max, v2.3)</td></tr>
  143. <tr><td><a href="#tv">--tv</a> id=value</td><td>Text or URL frame specified by id and value (v2.3 tag). User defined frame. Syntax: --tv "TXXX=description=content"</td></tr>
  144. <tr><td><a href="#add-id3v2">--add-id3v2</a></td><td>Force addition of version 2 tag</td></tr>
  145. <tr><td><a href="#id3v1-only">--id3v1-only</a></td><td>Add only a version 1 tag</td></tr>
  146. <tr><td><a href="#id3v2-only">--id3v2-only</a></td><td>Add only a version 2 tag</td></tr>
  147. <tr><td><a href="#id3v2-latin1">--id3v2-latin1</a></td><td>Add following options in ISO-8859-1 text encoding</td></tr>
  148. <tr><td><a href="#id3v2-utf16">--id3v2-utf16</a></td><td>Add following options in unicode text encoding</td></tr>
  149. <tr><td><a href="#space-id3v1">--space-id3v1</a></td><td>Pad version 1 tag with spaces instead of nulls</td></tr>
  150. <tr><td><a href="#pad-id3v2-size">--pad-id3v2-size</a> n</td><td>Adds ID3v2 tag with n padding bytes</td></tr>
  151. <tr><td><a href="#genre-list">--genre-list</a></td><td>Print alphabetically sorted ID3 genre list and exit</td></tr>
  152. <tr><td><a href="#ignore-tag-errors">--ignore-tag-errors</a></td><td>Ignore errors in values passed for tags</td></tr>
  153. <tr><td colspan="2">
  154. Note: A version 2 tag will NOT be added unless one of the input fields
  155. won't fit in a version 1 tag (e.g. the title string is longer than 30
  156. characters), or the '--add-id3v2' or '--id3v2-only' options are used,
  157. or output is redirected to stdout.</td></tr>
  158. <tr><th colspan="2">MP3 header/stream options:</th></tr>
  159. <tr><td><a href="#e">-e</a> mode</td><td>De-emphasis n/5/c (obsolete)</td></tr>
  160. <tr><td><a href="#c">-c</a></td><td>Mark as copyright</td></tr>
  161. <tr><td><a href="#o">-o</a></td><td>Mark as non-original</td></tr>
  162. <tr><td><a href="#p">-p</a></td><td>Error detection. adds 16 bit checksum to every frame
  163. (the checksum is computed correctly)</td></tr>
  164. <tr><td><a href="#strictly-enforce-ISO">--strictly-enforce-ISO</a></td><td>Comply as much as possible to ISO MPEG spec</td></tr>
  165. <tr><td><a href="#replaygain-fast">--replaygain-fast</a></td><td>Compute RG fast but slightly inaccurately (default)</td></tr>
  166. <tr><td><a href="#replaygain-accurate">--replaygain-accurate</a><a href="#note1"><sup>1</sup></a></td><td>Compute RG
  167. more accurately and find the peak sample</td></tr>
  168. <tr><td><a href="#noreplaygain">--noreplaygain</a></td><td>Disable ReplayGain analysis</td></tr>
  169. <tr><td><a href="#clipdetect">--clipdetect</a><a href="#note1"><sup>1</sup></a></td><td>Enable
  170. --replaygain-accurate and print a message whether
  171. clipping occurs and how far the waveform is from full scale</td></tr>
  172. <tr><th colspan="2">Verbosity:</th></tr>
  173. <tr><td><a href="#disptime">--disptime</a> secs</td><td>Print progress report every secs seconds</td></tr>
  174. <tr><td><a href="#nohist">--nohist</a></td><td>Disable VBR histogram display</td></tr>
  175. <tr><td><a href="#silent">--silent</a> / <a href="#quiet">--quiet</a></td><td>Don't print anything on screen</td></tr>
  176. <tr><td><a href="#verbose">--verbose</a></td><td>Print a lot of useful information</td></tr>
  177. <tr><td><a href="#version">--version</a> / <a href="#license">--license</a></td><td>Print License information</td></tr>
  178. <tr><td><a href="#help">--help</a> / <a href="#usage">--usage</a></td><td>Shows the common list of switches. Add <i>id3</i> or <i>dev</i> to get help for a specified topic</td></tr>
  179. <tr><td><a href="#longhelp">--longhelp</a></td><td>Shows the complete list of switches</td></tr>
  180. <tr><th colspan="2">Experimental switches for developers. Only enabled in alpha/debug
  181. versions. Can change from version to version</th></tr>
  182. <tr><td>--nores</td><td>Disables the bit reservour. Each frame will become independent from previous ones, but the quality will be lower.</td></tr>
  183. <tr><td>--buffer-constraint <i>x</i></td><td>available values for <i>x</i>: default, strict, maximum</td></tr>
  184. <tr><td>--noath</td><td>turns ATH down to a flat noise floor</td></tr>
  185. <tr><td>--athshort</td><td>ignore GPSYCHO for short blocks, use ATH only</td></tr>
  186. <tr><td>--athonly</td><td>ignore GPSYCHO completely, use ATH only</td></tr>
  187. <tr><td>--athtype x</td><td>selects between different ATH types [0-4]</td></tr>
  188. <tr><td>--athlower x</td><td>Lower the ATH by x.x dB's</td></tr>
  189. <tr><td>--athaa-type n</td><td>ATH auto adjust: 0 'no' else 'loudness based'</td></tr>
  190. <tr><td>--athaa-sensitivity x</td><td>activation offset in -/+ dB for ATH auto-adjustment</td></tr>
  191. <tr><td>--short</td><td>Allow the use of short blocs (default)</td></tr>
  192. <tr><td>--noshort</td><td>Disable use of short blocks</td></tr>
  193. <tr><td>--allshort</td><td>Use only short blocks</td></tr>
  194. <tr><td>--shortthreshold x[,y]</td><td>short block switching threshold, x for L/R/M channel, y for S channel</td></tr>
  195. <tr><td>--temporal-masking x</td><td>x=0 disables, x=1 enables temporal masking effect</td></tr>
  196. <tr><td>--notemp</td><td>Alias of --temporal-masking 0</td></tr>
  197. <tr><td>--nssafejoint</td><td>M/S switching criterion</td></tr>
  198. <tr><td>--nsmsfix x</td><td>M/S switching tuning [effective 0-3.5]</td></tr>
  199. <tr><td>--ns-bass x</td><td>Adjust masking for sfbs 0 - 6 (long) 0 - 5 (short)</td></tr>
  200. <tr><td>--ns-alto x</td><td>Adjust masking for sfbs 7 - 13 (long) 6 - 10 (short)</td></tr>
  201. <tr><td>--ns-treble x</td><td>Adjust masking for sfbs 14 - 21 (long) 11 - 12 (short)</td></tr>
  202. <tr><td>--ns-sfb21 x</td><td>Change ns-treble by x dB for sfb21</td></tr>
  203. <tr><td>-Z [n]</td><td>always do calculate short block maskings</td></tr>
  204. <tr><td>--substep</td><td>use pseudo substep noise shaping method types 0-2</td></tr>
  205. <tr><td>-X n[,m]</td><td>selects between different noise measurements n for long block, m for short. if m is omitted, m = n</td></tr>
  206. <tr><td>--vbr-new</td><td>In LAME 3.98, the new VBR was made default, and this switch may be used for experimental tweaks.</td></tr>
  207. <tr><th colspan="2">Aliases and removed settings</th></tr>
  208. <tr><td>-f</td><td>Alias of <a href="#q">-q 7</a>.</td></tr>
  209. <tr><td>-h</td><td>Alias of <a href="#q">-q 2</a>.</td></tr>
  210. <tr><td>-v</td><td>Alias of <a href="#V">-V 4</a></td></tr>
  211. <tr><td>-S</td><td>Alias of <a href="#silent">--silent</a></td></tr>
  212. <tr><td>--alt-preset</td><td>Alias of <a href="#preset">--preset</a></td></tr>
  213. <tr><td>--r3mix</td><td>Alias of <a href="#V">-V 3</a></td></tr>
  214. <tr><td>--vbr-mtrh</td><td>Alias of LAME 3.98 default vbr mode</td></tr>
  215. <tr><td>--pad-id3v2</td><td>Alias of <a href="#pad-id3v2-size">--pad-id3v2-size 128</a></td></tr>
  216. <tr><td>-d</td><td>No longer supported</td></tr>
  217. <tr><td>-k</td><td>No longer supported</td></tr>
  218. <tr><td>--cwlimit</td><td>No longer supported</td></tr>
  219. <tr><td>--ogginput</td><td>No longer supported. Compile with
  220. <a href="http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/">libsndfile</a> instead</td></tr>
  221. <tr><td>--brief</td><td>Currently unused</td></tr>
  222. <tr><td>--interch x</td><td>Currently unused</td></tr>
  223. <tr><td style="border-bottom:0px;">--nspsytune</td><td style="border-bottom:0px;">Currently unused</td></tr>
  224. </table>
  225. <h3>Detailed description in alphabetical order</h3>
  226. <p class="settingtitle">
  227. <a name="a"><span class="hilight">-a</span></a> Downmix
  228. </p>
  229. <p>
  230. mix the stereo input file to mono and encode as mono.<br/>
  231. </p>
  232. <p>
  233. This option is only needed in the case of raw PCM stereo input
  234. (because LAME cannot determine the number of channels in the input file).
  235. To encode a stereo PCM input file as mono, use "lame -m m -a"<br/>
  236. </p>
  237. <p>
  238. For WAV and AIFF input files, using "-m m" will always produce a
  239. mono .mp3 file from both mono and stereo input.
  240. </p>
  241. <p class="settingtitle">
  242. <a name="abr"><span class="hilight">--abr n</span></a> Average bitrate encoding (aka Safe VBR)
  243. </p>
  244. <p>
  245. turns on encoding with a targeted average bitrate of n kbps, allowing
  246. to use frames of different sizes. The allowed range of n is 8...320
  247. kbps, you can use any integer value within that range.
  248. </p>
  249. <p class="settingtitle">
  250. <a name="add-id3v2"><span class="hilight">--add-id3v2</span></a> Force addition of version 2 tag
  251. </p>
  252. <p>
  253. Tells LAME to add the tag information as id3v2. This implies adding both, a version 1
  254. and a version 2 tag, if the values fit on a version 1 tag. See --id3v1-only and
  255. --id3v2-only if you want a more fine-grained control.
  256. </p>
  257. <p class="settingtitle">
  258. <a name="b"><span class="hilight">-b n</span></a> Bitrate
  259. </p>
  260. <table cellpadding="5">
  261. <tr><th>Codec</th>
  262. <th>sample frequencies (kHz)</th>
  263. <th>bitrates (kbps)</th></tr>
  264. <tr><td>MPEG-1 layer III </td> <td>32, 48, 44.1</td>
  265. <td>32 40 48 56 64 80 96 112 128 160 192 224 256 320</td></tr>
  266. <tr><td>MPEG-2 layer III</td><td> 16, 24, 22.05</td>
  267. <td> 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 80 96 112 128 144 160</td></tr>
  268. <tr><td style="border-bottom:0px;">MPEG-2.5 layer III</td>
  269. <td style="border-bottom:0px;"> 8, 12, 11.025</td>
  270. <td style="border-bottom:0px;">8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64</td></tr>
  271. </table>
  272. <p>
  273. The bitrate to be used. Default is 128kbps in MPEG1 (64 for mono),
  274. 64kbps in MPEG2 (32 for mono) and 32kbps in MPEG2.5 (16 for mono).
  275. </p>
  276. <p>
  277. When used with variable bitrate encodings (VBR), -b specifies the
  278. minimum bitrate to use. This is useful only if you need to circumvent
  279. a buggy hardware device with strange bitrate constrains. (You will need the -F setting too for digital silence).<br/>
  280. Default for ABR/VBR is the minimum allowed bitrate for the MPEG version. (i.e. no limit)
  281. </p>
  282. <p class="settingtitle">
  283. <a name="B"><span class="hilight">-B n</span></a> Max bitrate
  284. </p>
  285. <p>
  286. see also option "-b" for allowed bitrates.
  287. </p>
  288. <p>
  289. Maximum allowed bitrate when using VBR/ABR.
  290. </p>
  291. <p>
  292. Using -B is NOT RECOMMENDED. A 128 kbps CBR bitstream, because of the
  293. bit reservoir, can actually have frames which use as many bits as a
  294. 320 kbps frame. ABR/VBR modes minimize the use of the bit reservoir, and
  295. thus need to allow 320 kbps frames to get the same flexibility as CBR
  296. streams. This is useful only if you need to circumvent a buggy hardware
  297. device with strange bitrate constrains.<br/>
  298. Default value is the maximum allowed bitrate for the MPEG versio (i.e. no limit)
  299. </p>
  300. <p class="settingtitle">
  301. <a name="big-endian"><span class="hilight">--big-endian</span></a> Set the byte order to big-endian.
  302. </p>
  303. <p>
  304. This switch tells LAME that the RAW pcm input is encoded in big-endian instead
  305. of little-endian.
  306. </p>
  307. <p class="settingtitle">
  308. <a name="bitwidth"><span class="hilight">--bitwidth</span></a> Sets the bitwidth value
  309. </p>
  310. <p>
  311. With RAW pcm input, this switch lets specify the bitwidth of the same (8 bits,
  312. 16 bits...)
  313. </p>
  314. <p class="settingtitle">
  315. <a name="c"><span class="hilight">-c</span></a> copyright flag
  316. </p>
  317. <p>
  318. mark the encoded file as copyrighted
  319. </p>
  320. <p class="settingtitle">
  321. <a name="cbr"><span class="hilight">--cbr</span></a> Enforce constant bitrate encoding
  322. </p>
  323. <p>This switch disables the VBR encoding. Examples:</p>
  324. <pre>lame -V 0 --cbr input.wav</pre>
  325. Will encode at -b 128 (ignore completely -V and encode at default bitrate)
  326. <pre>lame --preset 160 --cbr</pre>
  327. Will encode at -b 160 (ignore ABR and use the specified bitrate)
  328. <pre>lame --abr 200 --cbr</pre>
  329. Will encode at -b 192 (ignore ABR and use the nearest bitrate to the one specified)
  330. <p class="settingtitle">
  331. <a name="clipdetect"><span class="hilight">--clipdetect</span></a> Clipping detection
  332. </p>
  333. <p>
  334. Enable --replaygain-accurate and print a message whether clipping
  335. occurs and how far in dB the waveform is from full scale.
  336. </p>
  337. <p>
  338. This option is not usable if the MP3 decoder was <b>explicitly</b> disabled
  339. in the build of LAME.
  340. </p>
  341. <p>
  342. See also: --replaygain-accurate
  343. </p>
  344. <p class="settingtitle">
  345. <a name="comp"><span class="hilight">--comp x</span></a> Indicate a compression ratio instead of a bitrate
  346. </p>
  347. <p>
  348. Use this in place of the -b setting if you prefer to indicate a compression ratio (integer value).
  349. The ratio is the value of <sup>original-filesize</sup>/<sub>desired-filesize</sub>
  350. </p>
  351. <p class="settingtitle">
  352. <a name="decode"><span class="hilight">--decode</span></a> MP3 decode capability
  353. </p>
  354. <p>
  355. This uses LAME's HIP<a href="#note2"><sup>2</sup></a> decoder to decode an MP3 (layers 1, 2 and 3) file to a wav file.
  356. </p>
  357. <p>
  358. If -t is used (disable wav header), LAME will output
  359. raw pcm in native endian format (use -x to swap bytes).
  360. </p>
  361. <p>
  362. This option is not usable if the MP3 decoder was <b>explicitly</b> disabled
  363. in the build of LAME.
  364. </p>
  365. <p class="settingtitle">
  366. <a name="decode-mp3delay"><span class="hilight">--decode-mp3delay x</span></a> Indicate a different encoder delay
  367. for decoding
  368. </p>
  369. <p>
  370. When decoding an mp3 file, LAME automatically corrects for the start delay that
  371. the encoder had to put into it.<br/>
  372. This setting lets you specify a different delay than LAME's own one, so that it
  373. is possible to compensate for the delay of mp3's generated with other encoders.
  374. </p>
  375. <p class="settingtitle">
  376. <a name="disptime"><span class="hilight">--disptime secs</span></a> Update the display each secs
  377. </p>
  378. <p>
  379. Use this setting to change the frequency that LAME updates the display when
  380. encoding a file. Allows decimal values (like 0.5)
  381. </p>
  382. <p class="settingtitle">
  383. <a name="e"><span class="hilight">-e n/5/c</span></a> Write the de-emphasis flag
  384. </p>
  385. <p>
  386. n = (none, default)<br/>
  387. 5 = 50/15 microseconds<br/>
  388. c = ccitt j.17<br/>
  389. </p>
  390. <p>
  391. All this does is set a flag in the bitstream. If you have a PCM
  392. input file where one of the above types of (obsolete) emphasis has
  393. been applied, you can set this flag in LAME. Then the mp3 decoder
  394. should de-emphasize the output during playback, although most
  395. decoders ignore this flag.
  396. </p>
  397. <p>
  398. A better solution would be to apply the de-emphasis with a standalone
  399. utility before encoding, and then encode without -e.
  400. </p>
  401. <p class="settingtitle">
  402. <a name="F"><span class="hilight">-F</span></a> Enforce the minimum bitrate
  403. </p>
  404. <p>
  405. Enforces the minimum bitrate. Without this option, passages of analog
  406. silence will be encoded at the minimum bitrate possible (32 or 8, depending on
  407. MPEG version).
  408. </p>
  409. <p class="settingtitle">
  410. <a name="flush"><span class="hilight">--flush</span></a> Flush the output stream as soon as possible
  411. </p>
  412. <p>
  413. This setting forces a flush of the data written as soon as the operation has
  414. finished. This is mostly useful in case of streams. With files, it may degrade
  415. performance, since the OS has to write to disk in smaller chunks.
  416. </p>
  417. <p class="settingtitle">
  418. <a name="freeformat"><span class="hilight">--freeformat</span></a> Encode to freeformat stream
  419. </p>
  420. <p>
  421. LAME will produce a fixed bitrate, free format bitstream.
  422. User must specify the desired bitrate in kbps, which can
  423. be any integer between 8 and 640.
  424. </p>
  425. <p>
  426. Not supported by most decoders. Compliant decoders (of which there
  427. are few) are only required to support up to 320 kbps.
  428. </p>
  429. <p>
  430. Decoders knwon to handle free format:
  431. </p>
  432. <table cellpadding="4">
  433. <tr><th></th><th>Supports up to</th></tr>
  434. <tr><td>MAD</td><td>640 kbps</td></tr>
  435. <tr><td>"lame --decode"</td><td>640 kbps</td></tr>
  436. <tr><td style="border-bottom:0px;">l3dec</td><td style="border-bottom:0px;">310 kbps</td></tr>
  437. </table>
  438. <p class="settingtitle">
  439. <a name="gain"><span class="hilight">--gain</span></a> Apply gain in decibels.
  440. </p>
  441. <p>
  442. Apply Gain adjustment in decibels, range -20.0 to +12.0. 0dBFS means no amplification.
  443. </p>
  444. <p class="settingtitle">
  445. <a name="genre-list"><span class="hilight">--genre-list</span></a> Print alphabetical ordered list of
  446. known genres
  447. </p>
  448. <p>
  449. Tell LAME to print the list of genres with their index to be used with the --tg
  450. setting.
  451. </p>
  452. <table cellpadding="4">
  453. <tr><td style="border-bottom-width:0px;">123 Acappella<br />
  454. 34 Acid<br />
  455. 74 Acid Jazz<br />
  456. 73 Acid Punk<br />
  457. 99 Acoustic<br />
  458. 20 Alternative<br />
  459. 40 Alternative Rock<br />
  460. 26 Ambient<br />
  461. 145 Anime<br />
  462. 90 Avantgarde<br />
  463. 116 Ballad<br />
  464. 41 Bass<br />
  465. 135 Beat<br />
  466. 85 Bebob<br />
  467. 96 Big Band<br />
  468. 138 Black Metal<br />
  469. 89 Bluegrass<br />
  470. 0 Blues<br />
  471. 107 Booty Bass<br />
  472. 132 BritPop<br />
  473. 65 Cabaret<br />
  474. 88 Celtic<br />
  475. 104 Chamber Music<br />
  476. 102 Chanson<br />
  477. 97 Chorus<br />
  478. 136 Christian Gangsta<br />
  479. 61 Christian Rap<br />
  480. 141 Christian Rock<br />
  481. 32 Classical<br />
  482. 1 Classic Rock<br />
  483. 112 Club<br />
  484. 128 Club-House<br />
  485. 57 Comedy<br />
  486. 140 Contemporary Christian<br />
  487. 2 Country<br />
  488. 139 Crossover<br />
  489. 58 Cult</td><td style="border-bottom-width:0px;">
  490. 3 Dance<br />
  491. 125 Dance Hall<br />
  492. 50 Darkwave<br />
  493. 22 Death Metal<br />
  494. 4 Disco<br />
  495. 55 Dream<br />
  496. 127 Drum &amp; Bass<br />
  497. 122 Drum Solo<br />
  498. 120 Duet<br />
  499. 98 Easy Listening<br />
  500. 52 Electronic<br />
  501. 48 Ethnic<br />
  502. 54 Eurodance<br />
  503. 124 Euro-House<br />
  504. 25 Euro-Techno<br />
  505. 84 Fast Fusion<br />
  506. 80 Folk<br />
  507. 115 Folklore<br />
  508. 81 Folk-Rock<br />
  509. 119 Freestyle<br />
  510. 5 Funk<br />
  511. 30 Fusion<br />
  512. 36 Game<br />
  513. 59 Gangsta<br />
  514. 126 Goa<br />
  515. 38 Gospel<br />
  516. 49 Gothic<br />
  517. 91 Gothic Rock<br />
  518. 6 Grunge<br />
  519. 129 Hardcore<br />
  520. 79 Hard Rock<br />
  521. 137 Heavy Metal<br />
  522. 7 Hip-Hop<br />
  523. 35 House<br />
  524. 100 Humour<br />
  525. 131 Indie</td><td style="border-bottom-width:0px;">
  526. 19 Industrial<br />
  527. 33 Instrumental<br />
  528. 46 Instrumental Pop<br />
  529. 47 Instrumental Rock<br />
  530. 8 Jazz<br />
  531. 29 Jazz+Funk<br />
  532. 146 JPop<br />
  533. 63 Jungle<br />
  534. 86 Latin<br />
  535. 71 Lo-Fi<br />
  536. 45 Meditative<br />
  537. 142 Merengue<br />
  538. 9 Metal<br />
  539. 77 Musical<br />
  540. 82 National Folk<br />
  541. 64 Native US<br />
  542. 133 Negerpunk<br />
  543. 10 New Age<br />
  544. 66 New Wave<br />
  545. 39 Noise<br />
  546. 11 Oldies<br />
  547. 103 Opera<br />
  548. 12 Other<br />
  549. 75 Polka<br />
  550. 134 Polsk Punk<br />
  551. 13 Pop<br />
  552. 53 Pop-Folk<br />
  553. 62 Pop/Funk<br />
  554. 109 Porn Groove<br />
  555. 117 Power Ballad<br />
  556. 23 Pranks<br />
  557. 108 Primus<br />
  558. 92 Progressive Rock<br />
  559. 67 Psychedelic<br />
  560. 93 Psychedelic Rock<br />
  561. 43 Punk<br />
  562. 121 Punk Rock</td><td style="border-bottom-width:0px;">
  563. 15 Rap<br />
  564. 68 Rave<br />
  565. 14 R&amp;B<br />
  566. 16 Reggae<br />
  567. 76 Retro<br />
  568. 87 Revival<br />
  569. 118 Rhythmic Soul<br />
  570. 17 Rock<br />
  571. 78 Rock &amp; Roll<br />
  572. 143 Salsa<br />
  573. 114 Samba<br />
  574. 110 Satire<br />
  575. 69 Showtunes<br />
  576. 21 Ska<br />
  577. 111 Slow Jam<br />
  578. 95 Slow Rock<br />
  579. 105 Sonata<br />
  580. 42 Soul<br />
  581. 37 Sound Clip<br />
  582. 24 Soundtrack<br />
  583. 56 Southern Rock<br />
  584. 44 Space<br />
  585. 101 Speech<br />
  586. 83 Swing<br />
  587. 94 Symphonic Rock<br />
  588. 106 Symphony<br />
  589. 147 SynthPop<br />
  590. 113 Tango<br />
  591. 18 Techno<br />
  592. 51 Techno-Industrial<br />
  593. 130 Terror<br />
  594. 144 Thrash Metal<br />
  595. 60 Top 40<br />
  596. 70 Trailer<br />
  597. 31 Trance<br />
  598. 72 Tribal<br />
  599. 27 Trip-Hop<br />
  600. 28 Vocal</td></tr>
  601. </table>
  602. <p class="settingtitle">
  603. <a name="help"><span class="hilight">--help</span></a> Print the command line help.
  604. </p>
  605. <p>
  606. Print the short command line help and exit.
  607. </p>
  608. <p class="settingtitle">
  609. <a name="highpass"><span class="hilight">--highpass number</span></a> Use a highpass filter when encoding
  610. </p>
  611. <p>
  612. Enables a highpass filter of the specified frequency when encoding the source.
  613. Range [0.001..50]kHz or [50..50000]Hz.<br/>
  614. This is usually not required, and the gains are usually minimal. May be useful to
  615. remove an interference signal on 50Hz or 60Hz, or a DC offset. (default: disabled)<br/>
  616. Note: The current implementation has a minimum highpass frequency of (67.5/62)% of the sample rate
  617. (I.e. 481Hz at 44Khz).
  618. </p>
  619. <p class="settingtitle">
  620. <a name="highpass-width"><span class="hilight">--highpass-width width</span></a> Set the width of the decaying curve.
  621. </p>
  622. <p>
  623. Specify the width in Hz of the decaying curve of the highpass. Range [16..50000]Hz<br/>
  624. The minimum (and default) width is 75% of a band's width (which is 1/64th of the sample rate).<br/>
  625. Note: See the remark in the --highpass command above.
  626. </p>
  627. <p class="settingtitle">
  628. <a name="id3v1-only"><span class="hilight">--id3v1-only</span></a> Disable the use of id3v2.
  629. </p>
  630. <p>
  631. Put it before any tag setting.<br/>
  632. This setting tells LAME to use ID3 v1 tag only, and not create an ID3v2 even if
  633. it thinks it should.
  634. </p>
  635. <p class="settingtitle">
  636. <a name="id3v2-only"><span class="hilight">--id3v2-only</span></a> Disable the user ov id3v1.
  637. </p>
  638. <p>
  639. Put it before any tag setting.<br/>
  640. This setting tells LAME to use ID3 v2 tag only. An ID3 v1 tag would not be written.
  641. </p>
  642. <p class="settingtitle">
  643. <a name="ignore-tag-errors"><span class="hilight">--ignore-tag-errors</span></a> Ignore tag information errors
  644. </p>
  645. <p>
  646. Put it before any tag setting.<br/>
  647. This tells lame to ignore the tag information that sees as erroneous and continue
  648. encoding without those. Without this setting, errors are reported and encoding
  649. does not start.
  650. </p>
  651. <p class="settingtitle">
  652. <a name="license"><span class="hilight">--license</span></a> Print the license page
  653. </p>
  654. <p>
  655. Prints version and license information about LAME encoder.
  656. </p>
  657. <p class="settingtitle">
  658. <a name="little-endian"><span class="hilight">--little-endian</span></a> Set the byte order to little-endian.
  659. </p>
  660. <p>
  661. This switch tells LAME that the RAW pcm input is encoded in little-endian. It is
  662. the default setting.
  663. </p>
  664. <p class="settingtitle">
  665. <a name="longhelp"><span class="hilight">--longhelp</span></a> Shows the detailed help
  666. </p>
  667. <p>
  668. Prints a help page with all of the command-line switches and a brief explanation
  669. of them.
  670. </p>
  671. <p class="settingtitle">
  672. <a name="lowpass"><span class="hilight">--lowpass number</span></a> Use a lowpass filter when encoding
  673. </p>
  674. <p>
  675. Enables a lowpass filter of the specified frequency when encoding the source.
  676. Range [0.001..50]kHz or [50..50000]Hz<br />
  677. </p>
  678. <p>
  679. Using a lowpass filter helps reducing the amount of data to encode. This is
  680. important in MP3 due to a limitation in very high frequencies (>16Khz). The
  681. default value depends on the target bitrate/quality. It is not recommended to
  682. change it as a general basis.
  683. </p>
  684. <p class="settingtitle">
  685. <a name="lowpass-width"><span class="hilight">--lowpass-width width</span></a> Set the width of the decaying curve.
  686. </p>
  687. <p>
  688. Specify the width in Hz of the decaying curve of the lowpass. Range [0.001..16]kHz or [16..50000]Hz <br/>
  689. The lowpass is in the center of this curve.
  690. The minimum (and default) width is 75% of a band's width (which is 1/64th of the sample rate).
  691. </p>
  692. <p class="settingtitle">
  693. <a name="m"><span class="hilight">-m x</span></a> Channel modes
  694. </p>
  695. <table cellpadding="4">
  696. <tr><td width="35px">-m m</td><td>mono</td></tr>
  697. <tr><td>-m l</td><td>get only the left channel of a stereo signal for a mono output</td></tr>
  698. <tr><td>-m r</td><td>get only the right channel of a stereo signal for a mono output</td></tr>
  699. <tr><td>-m s</td><td>forced L/R stereo</td></tr>
  700. <tr><td>-m j /<br/>-m a</td><td>automatic switch between L/R and M/S stereo</td></tr>
  701. <tr><td>-m f</td><td>forced mid/side stereo</td></tr>
  702. <tr><td style="border-bottom:0px;">-m d</td><td style="border-bottom:0px;">dual (independent) channels.</td></tr>
  703. </table>
  704. <p>
  705. MONO is the default mode for mono input files. If "-m m" is specified
  706. for a stereo input file, the two channels will be averaged into a mono
  707. signal. (Note: See comments about the -a switch for RAW PCM streams)
  708. </p>
  709. <p>
  710. FORCED L/R STEREO encodes the left and the right signals independently, and
  711. gives more or less bits to each, depending on the currently available.
  712. </p>
  713. <p>
  714. JOINT STEREO is the default mode of encoding. jstereo means the encoder can use
  715. (on a frame by frame basis) either L/R stereo or mid/side stereo.
  716. In mid/side stereo, the mid (L+R) and side (L-R)
  717. channels are encoded, and more bits are allocated to the mid channel
  718. than the side channel. When there isn't too much stereo separation, this effectively
  719. increases the bandwidth, so having higher quality with the same amount of bits.<br/>
  720. Using mid/side stereo inappropriately can result in audible
  721. compression artifacts. Too much switching between mid/side and regular
  722. stereo can also sound bad. To determine when to switch to mid/side
  723. stereo, LAME uses a much more sophisticated algorithm than the one
  724. described in the ISO documentation.
  725. </p>
  726. <p>
  727. FORCED MID/SIDE STEREO forces all frames to be encoded with mid/side stereo. It
  728. should only be used if you are sure every frame of the input file
  729. has very little stereo seperation.
  730. </p>
  731. <p>
  732. DUAL CHANNEL mode is similar to encode the left and right as two mono signals.
  733. Its purpose was meant for Dual language streams where only one of them should be decoded.
  734. Most decoders just decode them as a stereo stream
  735. </p>
  736. <p class="settingtitle">
  737. <a name="mp1input"><span class="hilight">--mp1input</span></a>
  738. <a name="mp2input"><span class="hilight">--mp2input</span></a>
  739. <a name="mp3input"><span class="hilight">--mp3input</span></a> MPEG layer I, II or III input file
  740. </p>
  741. <p>
  742. Assume the input file is an MP1/2/3 file. LAME will decode the input file
  743. before re-encoding it. Since MP3 is a lossy format, this is
  744. not recommended in general. But it is useful for creating low bitrate
  745. mp3s from high bitrate mp3s. If the filename ends in ".mp3" LAME will assume
  746. it is an MP3. For stdin or MP3 files which don't end in .mp3 you need
  747. to use this switch.
  748. </p>
  749. <p class="settingtitle">
  750. <a name="noasm"><span class="hilight">--noasm value</span></a> Disables the specified assembler
  751. instructions
  752. </p>
  753. <p>
  754. When the encoder is compiled with assembler optimizations, this setting allows
  755. to disable them at runtime (They are only enabled if the CPU supports them).
  756. The purpose of this setting is to detect problems in those optimizations, and/or
  757. check the speed difference.
  758. </p>
  759. <p class="settingtitle">
  760. <a name="nogap"><span class="hilight">--nogap file1 file2 [...]</span></a> Encodes multiple continuous
  761. files.
  762. </p>
  763. <p>
  764. Encodes multiple files (ordered by position) which are meant to be played
  765. gaplessly.
  766. </p>
  767. <p>
  768. By default, LAME will encode the files with accurate length, but the first and
  769. last frame may contain a few erroneous samples for signals that don't fade-in/out
  770. (as is the case of continuous playback).
  771. </p>
  772. <p>
  773. This setting solves that by using the samples from the next/previous file to
  774. compute the encoding.
  775. </p>
  776. <p class="settingtitle">
  777. <a name="nogapout"><span class="hilight">--nogapout dir</span></a> Specify a directory for the output
  778. of the files encoded with --nogap
  779. </p>
  780. <p>
  781. This setting should precede --nogap, and is used to specify the alternate
  782. directory where to store the encoded files. The default one is the input file
  783. directory.
  784. </p>
  785. <p class="settingtitle">
  786. <a name="nogaptags"><span class="hilight">--nogaptags</span></a> Enables the use of VBR tags with files
  787. encoded with --nogap
  788. </p>
  789. <p>
  790. Tells LAME to put VBR tags to encoded files if they are encoded in VBR or ABR
  791. modes. Else, using the --nogap option doesn't generate it.
  792. </p>
  793. <p class="settingtitle">
  794. <a name="nohist"><span class="hilight">--nohist</span></a> Disable bitrate Histogram
  795. </p>
  796. <p>
  797. By default, LAME will display a bitrate histogram while producing
  798. VBR mp3 files. This will disable that feature.
  799. </p>
  800. <p class="settingtitle">
  801. <a name="noreplaygain"><span class="hilight">--noreplaygain</span></a> Disable ReplayGain analysis
  802. </p>
  803. <p>
  804. By default ReplayGain analysis is enabled. This switch disables it.
  805. </p>
  806. <p>
  807. See also: --replaygain-accurate, --replaygain-fast
  808. </p>
  809. <p class="settingtitle">
  810. <a name="o"><span class="hilight">-o</span></a> non-original
  811. </p>
  812. <p>
  813. Mark the encoded file as a copy
  814. </p>
  815. <p class="settingtitle">
  816. <a name="p"><span class="hilight">-p</span></a> CRC error detection
  817. </p>
  818. <p>
  819. Turn on CRC error protection.
  820. It will add a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code in each frame, allowing to
  821. detect transmission errors that could occur on the MP3 stream. However, it
  822. takes 16 bits per frame that would otherwise be used for encoding, and then
  823. will slightly reduce the sound quality.
  824. </p>
  825. <p class="settingtitle">
  826. <a name="pad-id3v2"><span class="hilight">--pad-id3v2</span></a> Pad ID3v2 tag.
  827. </p>
  828. <p>
  829. Pads the ID3v2 tag with extra 128bytes to allow it to expand.
  830. </p>
  831. <p class="settingtitle">
  832. <a name="preset"><span class="hilight">--preset x</span></a> Enable one of the presets
  833. </p>
  834. <table cellpadding="4">
  835. <tr><th>Setting</th><th>Meaning</th></tr>
  836. <tr><td>--preset medium</td><td>-V 5 --vbr-old</td></tr>
  837. <tr><td>--preset standard</td><td>-V 2 --vbr-old</td></tr>
  838. <tr><td>--preset extreme</td><td>-V 0 --vbr-old</td></tr>
  839. <tr><td>--preset insane</td><td>-b 320 --vbr-old</td></tr>
  840. <tr><td>--preset fast xxx</td><td>In versions older than LAME 3.98, "fast" was needed to enable the vbr-new routine. It is no longer needed.</td></tr>
  841. <tr><td colspan="2">&nbsp;</td></tr>
  842. <tr><td>--preset number</td><td>--abr number</td></tr>
  843. <tr><td>--preset cbr number</td><td>-b number</td></tr>
  844. <tr><th colspan="2">Old compatibility settings. Meaningless</th></tr>
  845. <tr><td>--preset phone</td><td>-b 16 -m m</td></tr>
  846. <tr><td>--preset phon+ / lw / mw-eu</td><td>-b 24 -m m</td></tr>
  847. <tr><td>--preset mw-us</td><td>-b 40 -m m</td></tr>
  848. <tr><td>--preset voice</td><td>-b 56 -m m</td></tr>
  849. <tr><td>--preset fm / radio</td><td>-b 112</td></tr>
  850. <tr><td>--preset hifi</td><td>-b 160</td></tr>
  851. <tr><td>--preset cd</td><td>-b 192</td></tr>
  852. <tr><td style="border-bottom:0px;">--preset studio</td><td style="border-bottom:0px;">-b 256</td></tr>
  853. </table>
  854. <p class="settingtitle">
  855. <a name="priority"><span class="hilight">--priority value</span></a> Set process priority
  856. </p>
  857. <p>
  858. (Windows and OS/2 only)
  859. </p>
  860. <p>
  861. Sets the process priority for LAME while running under Windows and/or IBM OS/2.
  862. This can be very useful to avoid the system becoming slow and/or
  863. unresponsive. By setting LAME to run in a lower priority, you leave
  864. more time for the system to update basic processing (drawing windows,
  865. polling keyboard/mouse, etc). The impact in LAME's performance is
  866. minimal if you use priority 0 to 2.
  867. </p>
  868. <p>
  869. The valid parameters are:
  870. </p>
  871. <table cellpadding="4">
  872. <thead>
  873. <tr><th></th><th>Priority</th><th>Windows</th><th>OS/2</th></tr>
  874. </thead>
  875. <tbody>
  876. <tr><td>0</td><td>Low priority </td><td>IDLE_PRIORITY_CLASS</td><td>IDLE, delta = 0</td></tr>
  877. <tr><td>1</td><td>Medium priority </td><td>IDLE_PRIORITY_CLASS</td><td>IDLE, delta = +31</td></tr>
  878. <tr><td>2</td><td>Regular priority </td><td>NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS</td><td>REGULAR, delta = -31</td></tr>
  879. <tr><td>3</td><td>High priority </td><td>HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS</td><td>REGULAR, delta = 0</td></tr>
  880. <tr><td style="border-bottom:0px;">4</td><td style="border-bottom:0px;">Maximum priority </td><td style="border-bottom:0px;">HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS</td><td style="border-bottom:0px;">REGULAR, delta = +31</td></tr>
  881. </tbody>
  882. </table>
  883. <p>
  884. Note that if you call '--priority' without a parameter, then
  885. priority 0 will be assumed.
  886. </p>
  887. <p class="settingtitle">
  888. <a name="q"><span class="hilight">-q n</span></a> Algorithm quality selection
  889. </p>
  890. <p>
  891. Bitrate is of course the main influence on quality. The higher the bitrate,
  892. the higher the quality. But for a given bitrate, we have a choice of algorithms
  893. to determine the best scalefactors and Huffman coding (noise shaping).
  894. </p>
  895. <p>
  896. For CBR, ABR and --vbr-old modes, the following table applies
  897. </p>
  898. <table cellpadding="4">
  899. <tr><td>-q 0</td><td>Use the best algorithms (Best Huffman coding search, full outer loop, and the highest precision of several parameters).</td></tr>
  900. <tr><td>-q 1 to -q 4</td><td>Similar to -q 0 without the full outer loop and with decreasing precision of parameters the further from -q 0. -q 3 is the default</td></tr>
  901. <tr><td>-q 5 and -q 6</td><td>Same as -q 7, but enables noise shaping and increases subblock gain</td></tr>
  902. <tr><td style="border-bottom:0px;">-q 7 to -q 9</td><td style="border-bottom:0px;">Same as -f. Very fast, OK quality. Psychoacoustics are used for pre-echo and mid/side stereo, but no noise-shaping is done.</td></tr>
  903. </table>
  904. <p>
  905. For the default VBR mode since LAME 3.98, the following table applies
  906. </p>
  907. <table cellpadding="4">
  908. <tr><td>-q 0 to -q 4</td><td>include all features of the other modes and additionally use the best search when applying Huffman coding.</td></tr>
  909. <tr><td>-q 5 and -q 6</td><td> include all features of -q7, calculate and consider actual quantisation noise, and additionally enable subblock gain.</td></tr>
  910. <tr><td style="border-bottom:0px;">-q 7 to -q 9</td><td style="border-bottom:0px;">This level uses a psymodel but does not calculate quantisation noise when encoding: it takes a quick guess.</td></tr>
  911. </table>
  912. <p class="settingtitle">
  913. <a name="quiet"><span class="hilight">--quiet</span></a> Don't print any output in the screen
  914. </p>
  915. <p>
  916. Disables the screen output. Useful for job processing or other times where
  917. screen output is undesirable.
  918. </p>
  919. <p class="settingtitle">
  920. <a name="r"><span class="hilight">-r</span></a> Input file is raw pcm
  921. </p>
  922. <p>
  923. Assume the input file is raw pcm. Sampling rate and mono/stereo
  924. must be specified on the command line. Without -r, LAME will perform
  925. several fseek()'s on the input file looking for WAV and AIFF headers.
  926. </p>
  927. <p>
  928. Not supported if LAME is compiled to use LIBSNDFILE.
  929. </p>
  930. <p class="settingtitle">
  931. <a name="replaygain-accurate"><span class="hilight">--replaygain-accurate</span></a> Slightly more accurate
  932. ReplayGain analysis and finding the peak sample
  933. </p>
  934. <p>
  935. Compute "Radio" ReplayGain on the decoded data stream. Find the peak sample
  936. by decoding on the fly the encoded data stream and store it in the file.
  937. </p>
  938. <p>
  939. ReplayGain analysis does _not_ affect the content of a compressed data
  940. stream itself, it is a value stored in the header of a sound file.
  941. Information on the purpose of ReplayGain and the algorithms used is
  942. available from http://www.replaygain.org/
  943. </p>
  944. <p>
  945. By default, LAME performs ReplayGain analysis on the input data (after
  946. the user-specified volume scaling). This behaviour might give slightly
  947. inaccurate results because the data on the output of a lossy
  948. compression/decompression sequence differs from the initial input data.
  949. When --replaygain-accurate is specified the mp3 stream gets decoded on
  950. the fly and the analysis is performed on the decoded data stream.
  951. Although theoretically this method gives more accurate results, it has
  952. several disadvantages:
  953. </p>
  954. <ul>
  955. <li>tests have shown that the difference between the ReplayGain values
  956. computed on the input data and decoded data is usually no greater
  957. than 0.5dB, although the minimum volume difference the human ear
  958. can perceive is about 1.0dB
  959. </li>
  960. <li>decoding on the fly significantly slows down the encoding process</li>
  961. </ul>
  962. The apparent advantage is that:
  963. <ul>
  964. <li> with --replaygain-accurate the peak sample is determined and
  965. stored in the file. The knowledge of the peak sample can be useful
  966. to decoders (players) to prevent a negative effect called 'clipping'
  967. that introduces distortion into sound.
  968. </li>
  969. </ul>
  970. <p>
  971. Only the "Radio" ReplayGain value is computed. It is stored in the LAME tag.
  972. The analysis is performed with the reference volume equal to 89dB.
  973. Note: the reference volume has been changed from 83dB on transition
  974. from version 3.95 to 3.95.1.
  975. </p>
  976. <p>
  977. This option is not usable if the MP3 decoder was _explicitly_ disabled
  978. in the build of LAME. (Note: if LAME is compiled without the MP3 decoder,
  979. ReplayGain analysis is performed on the input data after user-specified
  980. volume scaling).
  981. </p>
  982. <p>
  983. See also: --replaygain-fast, --noreplaygain, --clipdetect
  984. </p>
  985. <p class="settingtitle">
  986. <a name="replaygain-fast"><span class="hilight">--replaygain-fast</span></a> Fast ReplayGain analysis
  987. </p>
  988. <p>
  989. Compute "Radio" ReplayGain of the input data stream after user-specified
  990. volume scaling and/or resampling.
  991. </p>
  992. <p>
  993. ReplayGain analysis does _not_ affect the content of a compressed data
  994. stream itself, it is a value stored in the header of a sound file.
  995. Information on the purpose of ReplayGain and the algorithms used is
  996. available from http://www.replaygain.org/
  997. </p>
  998. <p>
  999. Only the "Radio" ReplayGain value is computed. It is stored in the LAME tag.
  1000. The analysis is performed with the reference volume equal to 89dB.
  1001. Note: the reference volume has been changed from 83dB on transition
  1002. from version 3.95 to 3.95.1.
  1003. </p>
  1004. <p>
  1005. This switch is enabled by default.
  1006. </p>
  1007. <p>
  1008. See also: --replaygain-accurate, --noreplaygain
  1009. </p>
  1010. <p class="settingtitle">
  1011. <a name="resample"><span class="hilight">--resample n</span></a> Output sampling frequency in kHz
  1012. </p>
  1013. <p>
  1014. where n = 8, 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48
  1015. </p>
  1016. <p>
  1017. Output sampling frequency. Resample the input if necessary.
  1018. </p>
  1019. <p>
  1020. If not specified, LAME may sometimes resample automatically
  1021. when faced with extreme compression conditions (like encoding
  1022. a 44.1 kHz input file at 32 kbps). To disable this automatic
  1023. resampling, you have to use --resample to set the output sample rate
  1024. equal to the input sample rate. In that case, LAME will not
  1025. perform any extra computations.
  1026. </p>
  1027. <p class="settingtitle">
  1028. <a name="s"><span class="hilight">-s n</span></a> Sampling frequency in kHz
  1029. </p>
  1030. <p>
  1031. where n = sampling rate in kHz.
  1032. </p>
  1033. <p>
  1034. Required for raw PCM input files. Otherwise it will be determined
  1035. from the header information in the input file.
  1036. </p>
  1037. <p>
  1038. LAME will automatically resample the input file to one of the
  1039. supported MP3 sample rates if necessary.
  1040. </p>
  1041. <p class="settingtitle">
  1042. <a name="scale"><span class="hilight">--scale arg</span></a>
  1043. <a name="scale-l"><span class="hilight">--scale-l arg</span></a>
  1044. <a name="scale-r"><span class="hilight">--scale-r arg</span></a> Scale the amplitude of the input file
  1045. </p>
  1046. <p>
  1047. Scales input by arg. This just multiplies the PCM data
  1048. (after it has been converted to floating point) by arg.
  1049. </p>
  1050. <p>
  1051. arg &gt; 1: increase volume<br/>
  1052. arg = 1: no effect<br/>
  1053. arg &lt; 1: reduce volume<br/>
  1054. </p>
  1055. <p>
  1056. Use with care, since most MP3 decoders will truncate data
  1057. which decodes to values greater than 32768.
  1058. </p>
  1059. <p>
  1060. The <i>l</i> and <i>r</i> variants apply the scaling only to left (channel 0) or right
  1061. (channel 1) respectively.
  1062. </p>
  1063. <p class="settingtitle">
  1064. <a name="signed"><span class="hilight">--signed</span></a> Input RAW uses signed values
  1065. </p>
  1066. <p>
  1067. Use with RAW pcm to indicate if the data is signed (values centered at zero) or
  1068. unsigned (all positive values). This is the default value.
  1069. </p>
  1070. <p class="settingtitle">
  1071. <a name="silent"><span class="hilight">--silent</span></a> Don't print any output in the screen
  1072. </p>
  1073. <p>
  1074. Disables the screen output. Useful for job processing or other times where
  1075. screen output is undesirable.
  1076. </p>
  1077. <p class="settingtitle">
  1078. <a name="space-id3v1"><span class="hilight">--space-id3v1</span></a> Use spaces for padding.
  1079. </p>
  1080. <p>
  1081. Use spaces instead of null values for padding data in an ID3v1 tag.
  1082. </p>
  1083. <p class="settingtitle">
  1084. <a name="strictly-enforce-ISO"><span class="hilight">--strictly-enforce-ISO</span></a> Strict ISO compliance
  1085. </p>
  1086. <p>
  1087. With this option, LAME will enforce the 7680 bit limitation on
  1088. total frame size. This results in many wasted bits for
  1089. high bitrate encodings. Some decoders need it.
  1090. </p>
  1091. <p class="settingtitle">
  1092. <a name="t"><span class="hilight">-t</span></a> Disable VBR tag or disable WAV header
  1093. </p>
  1094. <p>This setting has two different uses:</p>
  1095. <p>
  1096. When encoding to VBR, this setting disables writing the VBR Tag (also known as XING tag).
  1097. This tag is embedded by default in the frame 0 of the MP3 file. It lets VBR aware players
  1098. to correctly seek and compute playing times in such files.<br/>
  1099. </p>
  1100. <p>
  1101. When decoding MP3 to WAV using --decode, this flag will
  1102. disable writing the WAV header. The output will be raw pcm,
  1103. native endian format. Use -x to swap bytes.
  1104. </p>
  1105. <p class="settingtitle">
  1106. <a name="T"><span class="hilight">-T</span></a> Force the usage of the LAME tag
  1107. </p>
  1108. <p>
  1109. By default, LAME already adds a LAME tag when encoding.
  1110. This setting overrides the -t setting, and implies --nogaptags.
  1111. </p>
  1112. <p class="settingtitle">
  1113. <a name="unsigned"><span class="hilight">--unsigned</span></a> Input RAW uses unsigned values
  1114. </p>
  1115. <p>
  1116. Use with RAW pcm to indicate if the data is signed (values centered at zero) or
  1117. unsigned (all positive values).
  1118. </p>
  1119. <p class="settingtitle">
  1120. <a name="usage"><span class="hilight">--usage</span></a> Print the command line help.
  1121. </p>
  1122. <p>
  1123. Print the short command line help and exit.
  1124. </p>
  1125. <p class="settingtitle">
  1126. <a name="V"><span class="hilight">-V n</span></a> Enable VBR encoding
  1127. </p>
  1128. <p>
  1129. Encodes using the VBR algorithm, at the indicated quality.<br/>
  1130. 0=highest quality, bigger files. 9.999=lowest quality, smaller files. Decimal values can be specified, like: 4.51<br/>
  1131. On average, the resulting bitrates are as follows:
  1132. <table cellpadding="4">
  1133. <thead>
  1134. <tr><th>Setting</th><th>Average bitrate (kbps)</th></tr>
  1135. </thead>
  1136. <tbody>
  1137. <tr><td align="right">0</td><td align="right">245</td></tr>
  1138. <tr><td align="right">2</td><td align="right">190</td></tr>
  1139. <tr><td align="right">3</td><td align="right">175</td></tr>
  1140. <tr><td align="right">4</td><td align="right">165</td></tr>
  1141. <tr><td style="border-bottom:0px;" align="right">5</td><td style="border-bottom:0px;" align="right">130</td></tr>
  1142. </tbody>
  1143. </table>
  1144. </p>
  1145. <p>
  1146. Using -V 7 or higher (lower quality) is not recommended.
  1147. ABR usually produces better results.
  1148. </p>
  1149. <p class="settingtitle">
  1150. <a name="vbr-old"><span class="hilight">--vbr-old</span></a> Uses the old VBR method of encoding
  1151. </p>
  1152. <p>
  1153. Tells LAME to encode to VBR using the old (slower) method of encoding.
  1154. </p>
  1155. <p class="settingtitle">
  1156. <a name="verbose"><span class="hilight">--verbose</span></a>Program verbosity
  1157. </p>
  1158. <p>
  1159. Print a lot of information on screen.
  1160. </p>
  1161. <p class="settingtitle">
  1162. <a name="version"><span class="hilight">--version</span></a> Prints the license page
  1163. </p>
  1164. <p>
  1165. Prints version and license information about LAME encoder.
  1166. </p>
  1167. <p class="settingtitle">
  1168. <a name="x"><span class="hilight">-x</span></a> Swap input bytes
  1169. </p>
  1170. <p>
  1171. swap bytes in the input file (and output file when using --decode).
  1172. For sorting out little endian/big endian type problems. If your
  1173. encodings sound like static, try this first.
  1174. </p>
  1175. <p class="settingtitle">
  1176. <a name="Y"><span class="hilight">-Y</span></a> Ignore noise in sbf21, like CBR mode does
  1177. </p>
  1178. <p>
  1179. Allows -V2, -V1 and -V0 to not encode the highest frequencies accurately,
  1180. if doing so causes disproportional increases in bitrate. This is the same that
  1181. CBR and ABR modes do.<br/>
  1182. Due to the design of the MP3 format, to keep precision in the last scalefactor
  1183. band, an encoder needs to increase the precision in all the bands (not only in
  1184. this one).<br/>
  1185. The consequence is an increase of bitrate (+60kbps in some cases) compared to
  1186. not keeping that precision. Generally, this band should allow for distortions,
  1187. so using this switch shouldn't cause harm.
  1188. </p>
  1189. <p>&nbsp;
  1190. </p>
  1191. <div id="notes">
  1192. <ol>
  1193. <li><a name="note1"></a>If compiled with decoding capabilities</li>
  1194. <li><a name="note2"></a>HIP stands for Hip Isn't a Player and is based off of
  1195. Michael Hipp's <a href="http://www.mpg123.de">mpglib 0.2a</a></li>
  1196. </ol>
  1197. </div>
  1198. </div>
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