## LAME and MP3-related Links

### Quick Links:

- Lame official home site
- Lame development site at sourceforge
- Free (open source) software which supports or uses LAME
  - Multiplatform
  - Posix (UNIX-like)
  - MacOS Classic
  - Windows
- Free (closed source) software which supports or uses LAME
- Commercial software which supports or uses LAME
- LAME Binaries (for Windows, *nix, Amiga...)
- Alternative MP3 encoders
- Comparisons based on listening tests
- MP3 encoding web sites
- General MP3 Web Sites
- MP3 Related Software and Hardware
- MP3 Encoding direct from line-in
- Patent Information

### Free (open source) software which supports or uses LAME:

Multiplatform:

- FFmpeg An awesome collection of codecs (libavcodec) for pretty much all popular audio and video formats.
- andromeda (PHP and ASP) Dynamically presents collections of mp3s as streaming web sites.
- getID3() (PHP) PHP4 script that extracts useful information from MP3s & other multimedia file formats. Reads Lame tags.
- rip (Perl) Script for ripping and encoding.
- VideoLAN A powerful multimedia player and streaming solution for Win32, Linux, MacOS, BeOS...
- Audacity Open source multiplatform audio editor.
- jRipper (Java) CD ripper frontend.
- Tradebit is a file hosting service that offers server-side MP3 encoding with LAME.

Posix (Linux, MacOS X, BSD, Solaris, etc.):

- k3b An exceptional CD burning and ripping frontend for KDE.
- avifile AVI/DIVX encoder and decoder.
- Grip A gtk-based cd-player, ripper and encoder. Supports cddb, cdparanoia and LAME.
- Transcode Several command line utilities to transcode several audio and video formats.
- Mp3Maker A WindowMaker enhanced front end to cdda2wav/cdparanoia and LAME/bladeenc.
- ripperX GTK frontend for rippers and several encoders featuring CDDB support.
- T.E.A.R. frontend to LAME, cdparanoia and CDDB.
- Xmcd. CD Player with CDDB and ripping to MP3 and OGG.
- xtunes GTK frontend for LAME, MAD, cdparanoia, cdrecord and more.
- DLame Perl script to distribute the LAME encoding task among several machines in a network.
- Strec Stream recorder - A perl wrapper for dsproxy, realplayer and LAME.
- TCDR a menu-driven console frontend for CD recording and ripping that uses LAME to rip CDs into MP3 files.
- DarkIce Live streamer for IceCast.
- LiveIce Real time streaming of mp3s. Works with IceCast.
- MuSE A mixing, encoding and streaming engine.
- Flash For Linux a Flash-like development library.
- ABCDE "A Better CD Encoder" - Shell script to automatize ripping, encoding and tagging process.
- Arson - a KDE fronted to CD burning and ripping tools.
- Cripple - A command-line/batch CD ripper/encoder frontend.

MacOS Classic:

- DropMP3 includes LAME binaries.

Windows:

- CDex Ripper & encoder, includes LAME binaries (the Blade compatible dll).
- LameDropXPd OggDrop style drag'n'drop frontend.
- DVDx DVD to VCD/SVCD/AVI(XviD...) one-step converter.
- OmniEncoder a fully featured frontend for LAME and several other encoders.
- LAMEX An activex control for LAME, and a GUI. Source code only, includes LAME.
- m3w A live mp3 streamer for the WWW. Works with LAME, icecast, soundcard input.
- out_lame Winamp output plug-in. Create MP3 files directly from Winamp!
- RazorLame The RazorBlade front end now supports LAME.
- winLAME The only *nice* windows UI for LAME, according to the author :-)
- bbc2mp3 a tool for saving BBC "Listen Again" programmes as MP3 files.

### Free (closed source) software which supports or uses LAME:

- Foobar2000 (Windows) an audio player with spartan interface but lots of components and an almost fanatical focus on audio quality.
- Audiograbber (Windows) CD ripper/encoder.
- EnLAMEr (Windows) frontend for lame.exe
- EAC (Windows) Exact Audio Copy: High quality CD ripper.
- jtvmaker (Java) A web slideshow generating and photo sharing tool using LAME.
- Wavosaur Free audio editor and batch processor.
- LameBatch (Windows) frontend for lame.exe
- Hard Disk Ogg a line-in recorder that can encode directly to MP3, among other formats.
- LAMEr (Windows) Can also encode from line-in.
- RipTrax (Windows) Advanced CD Ripper with support for LAME and Vorbis.
- Music Conduit (Windows) A working substitute for the Transfer to Device feature in Windows Media Player.
- WORM MP3 Encoder (Windows) MP3 encoder based on LAME with reported improvements.
- ZLURP (Windows, Mac, Linux) Ripper and encoder. Includes LAME binaries.
- iTunes-LAME (MacOS) Integrates LAME into Apple iTunes, as an alternative to the default (rather poor) encoder.
- LameBrain (MacOS) LAME frontend for MacOS X.
- SecondSpin (Amiga) ripper & encoder.

### Commercial software which supports or uses LAME:

- WinAmp Can rip CDs using Lame, but only in the Pro (paid) version.
- WaveLab Digital Audio editing software.
- Goldwave Audio editor for Windows.
- dBpowerAMP (Windows) Rip and encode to/from mp3, wma, vorbis and other audio formats.
- UltraISO ISO CD image builder, editor and extractor.
- AudioEdit Deluxe Windows sound editor.
- Blaze Media Pro audio/video converter, editor, CD/DVD burner, and more for Windows.
- SWiSH Max Adobe Flash authoring tool for Windows.
- übercaster Podcast production suite for Macintosh.
- Audio Ease BarbaBatch Batch audio file converter for Macintosh.
- Amadeus II (Mac) Manipulate, create and analyze sounds.
- Peak 3 Macintosh audio editing/processing/mastering software.
- Audion Mac Jukebox software.
- CD Stack CD ripping software for Mac.
- Text Aloud MP3 Converts text into speech.
- TotalRecorder Universal sound recoder.
- CDcopy Windows ripper/encoder.
- eJay DJ Mix Station / Dance eJay Various Windows DJ software, using Gogo.
- Easy CD-DA Extractor Windows ripper/encoder, includes LAME binaries.
- MP3 Observer MP3 file-manager, ID3 tag editor, playlist creator and CD-archiving tool.
- MPAction MP3 Tools Windows jukebox software.
- 1CoolButtonTool Flash and Java button editor.
- N2MP3 Pro Macintosh jukebox software.
- UltraTagger. ID3 tag management, encoding and decoding.
- UMG protected audio CDs UMG is using Lame for the PC part of protected audio CDs. ("Fast and Furious").
- Visual MP3 Windows jukebox software with Karaoke support.
- Flash Digger Plus - a ShockWave Flash decompiler.

### LAME Binaries:

#### Linux:

- RareWares offers Debian binary packages of LAME and several other audio codecs/tools. Precompiled LAME versions for other distros are also available.
- FreshRPMs offers Linux RPM packages for several popular RPM-based distributions, including Fedora Core.

#### Windows:

- RareWares offers several compiled LAME versions, including modified versions featuring special functionality.
- From the Encoder/Windows section of www.mp3-tech.org.
- In the encoders section of MAZ Sound.

#### MacOS X:

- Thalictrum offers optimized binaries for both Intel and PowerPC Macs.
- KJams has a QuickTime component, which allows you to export audio from QuickTime and related apps to MP3 using LAME.
- The FINK project provides LAME binaries compiled for MacOS X.

#### Solaris:

- Sunfreeware provides up-to-date binaries for several versions of Sun Solaris, both SPARC and x86 architectures.

#### Etc.:

- Lame Binary Distribution Point - somewhat outdated, but with compiles for several obscure systems like HP-UX, Irix, VMS, Tru64, AIX, etc.

#### Amiga:

- For those of you that just won't give up on your Amiga, check The Amiga Alternative Audio Page or Amiga.SF.

### Other MP3 Encoders:

- Takehiro Tominaga has done some amazing work on LAME recently (see history). His versions are available here (source code only). Fortunately for us, Takehiro takes the time to fold many of his improvements back into LAME.
- GOGO-no-coda MP3 encoder (Alternate link) A forked version of LAME with many key routines rewritten in assembly (I.E, it's much faster). Uses the NASM assembler.
- FhG MP3enc 3.1. The gold standard of encoders. All other encoders strive to sound this good. Demo version only encodes up to 30 seconds.
  Update: according to recent listening tests, Lame already surpassed FhG encoders in quality at most bitrates. :-)
- FhG l3enc. The older brother of MP3enc. Very slow, but with quite reasonable quality.
- FhG Fastencc this "free" encoder was created with libraries stolen from Fraunhofer. It's the faster brother of MP3enc, and also the only FhG encoder to offer VBR encoding. Quality is not on par with MP3enc or LAME.
- BladeEnc One of the first free encoders for Linux. Development has stopped at version 0.94.2. Quality is not satisfactory.
- Xing MP3 encoder Reasonable quality and extremely fast encoder. Is now the MP3 encoder used in Real Jukebox and Real Player, and has been recently released under an Open Source license (it's still limited to Windows though)
- QDesign MP3 encoder Horrible quality. Only listed here for completeness purposes.
- ReallyRareWares is an online museum preserving obsolete and defunct encoders for several audio formats, including old LAME versions and obscure MP3 encoders (most of these encoders are simply compiles of the MPEG reference sources - dist10 - though)

### MP3 Encoder Comparisons based on listening tests:

- Lots of different MP3 encoders, using blind ABX tests
- Roberto's page of public blind listening tests comparing several formats and encoders.
- Sebastian Mares' listening tests

### MP3 Encoding Web Sites:

- Hydrogenaudio - Public discussion forum focused on psychoacoustic audio compression, featuring an MP3 section.
- MAZ Sound Encoders and other audio software.

### General MP3 Web Sites:

- Great site for technical information: www.mp3-tech.org
- RareWares - audio coding-related download site featuring several audio formats besides MP3.
- HydrogenAudio's Wiki is a repository of knowledge on audio-related matters.
- HydrogenAudio's list of recommended LAME settings to produce best quality encodes at several bitrates.
- BitBurners - The CD-R and MP3 resource
- MPEG.ORG Many pointers and resources.

### MP3 Related Software and Hardware:

- A favorite Linux ripper: cdparanoia (also, GNU's libcdio, a multiplatform port of CDparanoia)
- How to figure out which codec was used to make that mp3? Use EncSpot
- Open source embedded mp3? Cantante
- The MAD decoder Bug free, 24bit and GPL!
- PCAVtech sound card benchmarks
- Maate looks like a very sophisticated MP3 analysis package. They also have a good description of MP3 frames.
- A nice .wav file viewer and editor: sweep
- mptrim: Trim silence and adjust volume of mp3 files.
- mp3check: A program to check integrity of mp3 files.
- Mpcut: X11 mp3 frame editor.
- mp3asm: A program to cut and paste mp3 frames.
- MP3Splitter: Win32 MP3 splitter and frame statistics.
- jchopwave: Source code to a utility to split up .wav files.

### MP3 Encoding direct from line-in:

- mpegrec: Linux/Win32 line-in/mic MP3 recorder (requires LAME).
- MixMP3 by Dmitry Lesnikov
- Messer by Dariusz Sieradzki
- LAMEr, also a nice Windows frontend

### Patent Information:

- Some information from the source themselves: Thomson Multimedia
- A more accurate portrayal of the situation can be found on www.mp3-tech.org