NSRT: Best freeware mp3 encoder and place to host some jams?

I need to encode some jams and get them loaded up somewhere. Thanks for your insights into this matter.

First, I need some mp3 encoding. I know you guys got the dirt on some quality open source stuff. Hook me up, man.

I also need to know a good free place to host some jams. Mp3.com folded a while back and I still haven't recovered.

I'll give some free art to whomever can figure out "nsrt". Go!

LAME is the best encoder I know of. If you are running Wintel stuff, try the RazorLAME front end, it works pretty well. The best fidelity I've found is by using full stereo, 192Kbits, with VBR turned on and all filtering disabled.

NSRT might be "Need Some Real Truth" ... or not

Philbo's got it .

over here. go!

P.S. I'm cheap. And I trust the Super Search System more than I do google.

Nebraska Society of Radiologic Technologists

Nunavut Surface Rights Tribunal?

Nothing Significant to Report?

North Shore Round Table?

Naval Ship Repair Team?

National Schools Rugby Tournament?

New School Of Radio and Television?

No Search/Redundant Thread

I found a tip. My earthlink dial up has 10mb of web space. Doesn't take much to use that up. Well, I figured out that you get 10mb per email address (I get 8). So that's 80mb.

I'm back in business.

I'll also vote for LAME as best (not fastest) mp3 encoder. Some of the very best compressed tracks I have are high-VBR LAME-encoded tracks. There seems to be less funny business at the top than some of the "advanced" codecs (admittedly which I tend to use at lower BRs and average VBRs).

There are a bunch of front ends for the LAME encoder but one of the BEST "front ends" from my perspective is my DAW, Sonar, which has a codec manager that lets me set up different encoder format/data compression levels... it's basically just a command line wrapper but it works great for my purposes, allowing me to burn mp3s in a variety of formats straight from my project.

On the place thing, it sounds like you've already got that covered.

But if you should need more space or want to put your music someplace where it will last "forever" you might look into Internet Archive. (The people with the "Internet Wayback Machine.") www.internetarchive.org

The upload process is a little complicated but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty workable.

And if you want a "wrapper" for that, you can use IA's "sister site" www.OurMedia.org to upload your content. (That said, I used to use OM and still mirror my blog there -- but the uploader thing just doesn't work for me, anymore. OM is all volunteer and their infrastructure is often a bit shaky. But Internet Archive is pretty darn robust.)

Itunes is free and works on both PeeCee and Mac.

This is some great info, blue. I can always count on you for the dirt. If you can hold off on the ass-kissing for a sec, I'd like to address a couple of things you noted:

It just hit me..."front end"...ahh, it didn't hit me until I read your post that I'm sure I have the "front end" thing covered. Duh...Acid, SF, Audacity, Traction...I'm assuming all I really need to do is get the codec and get Sound Forge(etc) to use it? Don't tell me I need Sonar.

I'll go search google now that you've got me heading in the right direction.

And the info regarding internet archive is very good. It's loading in a tab as we speak.

I actually meant to check that out back when we made the move over here (it came up in one of my doom and gloom threads). I musta forgot...

And that reminds me that my buddy said there was a plugin for Firefox that will go to a url and download all the files. He said you gotta watch it...sites will block you. Obviously.

That's why I come here. These people know what there talking about. What would I do if I didn't have these people to help my focus my thought patterns?

I got my library card.

My co-worker thinks I'm a dork. Imagine that. Don't tell people the dictionary is one of your favorite books.

I'm thinking any good DAW/editor should have some kind of way of feeding command line parameters to a standalone command-line encoder like LAME.

But, you know, it's not THAT big a deal. All the Sonar thing really does is export a WAV version of whatever you're doing, invoke the encoder with the command line params you've already set up, directing the output to wherever you have set up, and then deleting the WAV file (unless you've told it not to). So it's a pushbutton thing, to be sure, but it's not like it's replacing scores of steps.

It's not that much worse to export the audio out of your DAW and then run one of the wrapper apps 'by hand.'

Still, you should explore your DAW/editor... good chance it's got something similar, I'm thinking.

I'm uploading now.

Aside from the file name restrictions, piece of cake. FTP. And I just used Mozilla 'cause I already had it open! Don't get no easier than that!

How's that wiki coming? If you want me to do up some header graffics or misc gifs or something, let me know.

Thank you, sir! A scholar and a saint.

Duh...I answered my own question. I downloaded Audacity a while back. I just never installed it. Guess I will now.

SF5 is what I'm using and it's got a bug or two from being far from a fresh install. Like years... I'd do a fresh one, but Sony won't re-auth it.

So, I'll see how Audacity does.

Go back & check the Audacity website - you have to download LAME separately. Once you install that, though, you're good to go!

And it sounds good.

You guys are twisting my arm with the itunes thing.

There was this NARAS Producer's Forum thing that we sat in on before. And I can't remember the name of one of the young producers, but he took a Steely Dan song and, using iTunes, selected "Better" encoding ("Good", "Better", or "Best), which is 160 kbps. He then went into Pro Tools and sliced the thing up, alternating between that and the untouched audio file from the CD. He played it on the large PA system.

Could you tell the difference? Well, it was *difficult*. I caught several instances where I could hear the difference, but am really sure that I missed a few. You could hear a slight difference in the high end, and a slight collapsing of the stereo soundfield. When people were filing out, I heard more than a few saying to their friends that they couldn't hear the difference.

I have pretty good ears. I'm sure a lot of other people did in the room as well. I'd love to sit here and tell you that I could differentiate easily between the two. But that'd be a lie. I couldn't. I'm sure I missed a few. And so did just about everyone else. And that was at 160kbps, according to the producer. It was surprising, to say the least.

Part of the the point of this thread is to say that I don't think iTunes sucks at ripping MP3s...