139 lines
5.1 KiB
HTML
139 lines
5.1 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
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"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
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<head>
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<meta name="generator" content="PSPad editor, www.pspad.com" />
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<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/lame.css" />
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<title>About the LAME encoder</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<div id="menu">
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<ul>
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<li><a href="index.html">Index page</a></li>
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<li><a href="about.html">About LAME</a></li>
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<li><a href="introduction.html">Intro to encoding</a></li>
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<li><a href="usage.html">Usage of LAME</a></li>
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<li><a href="history.html">Version history</a></li>
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<li><a href="contributors.html">Coders of LAME</a></li>
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<li><a href="contact.html">Contact LAME</a></li>
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<li><a style="border: 0" href="links.html">LAME links</a></li>
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</ul>
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</div>
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<div id="container">
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<div id="content">
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<div align="center">
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<img src="images/logo.gif" width="358" height="231" alt="LAME Official Logo" />
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<h2 class="hilight">About LAME</h2>
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</div>
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<p>
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LAME development started around mid-1998. Mike Cheng started it as a patch
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against the 8hz-MP3 encoder sources. After some quality concerns raised by
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others, he decided to start from scratch based on the dist10 sources. His
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goal was only to speed up the dist10 sources, and leave its quality untouched.
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That branch (a patch against the reference sources) became Lame 2.0, and not
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until Lame 3.81 (May 2000) the latest remainings of dist10 code were removed,
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making LAME no more only a patch.
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</p>
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<p>
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The project quickly became a team project. Mike Cheng eventually left
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leadership and started working on tooLame, an MP2 encoder. Mark Taylor became
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leader and started pursuing increased quality in addition to better speed. He
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can be considered the initiator of the LAME project in its current form. He
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released version 3.0 featuring gpsycho, a new psychoacoustic model he
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developed.
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</p>
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<p>
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In early 2003 Mark left project leadership, and since then the project has
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been lead through the cooperation of the active developers (currently 4
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individuals).
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</p>
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<p>
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Today, LAME is considered the best MP3 encoder at mid-high bitrates and at
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VBR<a href="#note1"><sup>1</sup></a>, mostly thanks to the dedicated work of its developers and the open
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source licensing model that allowed the project to tap into engineering
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resources from all around the world. Both quality and speed improvements are
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still happening, probably making LAME the only MP3 encoder still being
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actively developed.
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</p>
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<h3>LAME features:</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>
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Supports MPEG1, MPEG2 and MPEG2.5<a href="#note2"><sup>2</sup></a> layer III encoding.
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</li>
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<li>
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Encodes in CBR (constant bitrate) and in two types of variable bitrate, VBR and ABR<a
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href="#note3"><sup>3</sup></a>, as well as freeformat.
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</li>
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<li>
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Supports mono and stereo signals. Stereo signals are encoded by default with
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an advanced algorithm<a href="#note4"><sup>4</sup></a> to maximize the quality.
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</li>
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<li>
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Tuned default parameters for optimum encoding.
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</li>
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<li>
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Fast. Encodes to -V 2 at 17 times realtime on a P4 2.8Ghz.
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</li>
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<li>
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Uses an advanced psycho acoustic and noise shaping model improved during years.
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</li>
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<li>
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Developed under the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html">LGPL</a>
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GNU license
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</li>
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</ul>
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<div id="notes">
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<ol>
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<li><a name="note1"></a> See the results of <a href="http://listening-tests.hydrogenaudio.org/sebastian/">
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several blind tests</a> conducted by hydrogenaudio members.
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</li>
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<li><a name="note2"></a> MPEG1 sample rates are 32Khz, 44.1Khz and 48Khz.
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<br/>
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MPEG2 sample rates are 16Khz, 22.05Khz and 24Khz.
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<br/>
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MPEG 2.5 does not exist as a standard. It is an extension from
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<a href="http://www.fraunhofer.de/">fraunhofer</a> that added the possibility
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to encode in 8Khz, 11,025Khz and 12Khz.
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</li>
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<li><a name="note3"></a> See <a href="vbr.html">Variable Bit Rate</a> and
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<a href="abr.html">Average Bit Rate (ABR)</a>.
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</li>
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<li><a name="note4"></a> The stereo encoding of LAME automatically switches between
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Mid-Side and simple-stereo to maximize the available bits while preserving the
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quality. More info in <a href="ms_stereo.html">Mid/Side Stereo</a>
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</li>
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</ol>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div id="footer">
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<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/lame"><img src="http://sflogo.sourceforge.net/sflogo.php?group_id=290&type=12"
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alt="Get LAME (Lame Aint an MP3 Encoder) at SourceForge.net. Fast, secure and Free Open Source software downloads"
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border="0" height="30" width="120" /></a>
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<a href="http://validator.w3.org/#validate_by_upload"><img src="images/valid-xhtml10.png"
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alt="Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional" border="0" height="31" width="88" /></a>
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<a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/"><img src="images/valid-css.png"
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alt="Valid CSS!" border="0" height="31" width="88" /></a>
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<p>HTML markup and design by <a
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href="http://www.rjamorim.com" target="_blank">Roberto Amorim</a> and <a
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href="http://www.maresweb.de" target="_blank">Sebastian Mares</a>. Logo by <a
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href="http://www.brightercreative.co.uk">Sam Fisher</a>.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</body>
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</html>
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