LAME
| Developer(s) | The LAME development team |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 3.97
/ September 2006 |
| Preview release | 3.98a11 / 4.0a14
/ January 2007 |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Codec |
| License | GNU Lesser General Public License |
| Website | http://lame.sourceforge.net/ |
LAME is an MPEG-1 audio layer 3 (MP3) encoder. The name LAME is a recursive acronym for LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder, reflecting LAME's early history when it was not yet a complete encoder in itself.
As of 2004, consensus amongst the audiophile community is that LAME produces the highest-quality MP3 files for bitrates greater or equal to 128 kbit/s when using VBR; in a public listening test early in 2004, LAME MP3 files were the best 128 kbit/s MP3 files compared to the uncompressed original audio when using VBR mode.[1]
Released under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), LAME is free software.
History and development
At one time, LAME was simply a set of patches against the separately distributed ISO demonstration source, hence the claim that it "ain't an encoder". The ISO code had a restrictive license but was available without charge.
In May 2000, the LAME project reimplemented the last of the ISO source code, and thus LAME was then a totally new implementation — compiling recent versions of LAME no longer requires the ISO source code.
As recent LAME releases are no longer a patch against ISO encoder code, LAME is now itself an MP3 encoder and the LAME acronym has become a misnomer.
Legal issues
LAME, as any MP3 encoder, is claimed to implement some processes covered by some patents filed by Fraunhofer.[2]
LAME developers state that since their code is only released in source form, it should only be considered as a description of an MP3 encoder, and thus does not infringe any patent by itself when released as source code only. At the same time, they advise obtaining a patents license before including a compiled version of the encoder into a product.[3]
In November, 2005 there were reports that the Extended Copy Protection software included on some SONY Compact Discs includes portions of the LAME library without complying with the terms of the LGPL.[citation needed]
LAME-compatible software
Linux and Compatible Operating Systems
- Grip, a front-end for use with GNOME
- KAudioCreator, part of the KDE desktop.
- K3b, KDE's CD-R and DVD authoring software can rip audio CDs as well
Microsoft Windows
- RazorLame a Microsoft Windows front-end user interface for the commandline LAME Encoder executable.
- Lamedrop, easy to use front-end in Windows, similar to oggdrop
- winLAME
- ALL2LAME, A minimalist frontend for LAME that allows piping from commandline decoders of other formats, such as FLAC and Monkey's Audio.
- CDex, Windows CD audio extractor
- Exact Audio Copy (EAC), Windows audio grabber for CD-ROM drives
- Audiograbber
- foobar2000, an audio player that supports transcoding to LAME
- Burrrn, a simple Cdrdao-based gapless audio CD burning utility that uses LAME in decoding mode to maximize audio quality.
- Zortam Mp3 Media Studio a front end that integrates LAME with Zortam Mp3 Media Studio on Windows.
- JRiver Media Center, A Media Player/Manager which supports transcoding to LAME
Mac OS
- iTunes-LAME, a front end that integrates LAME with iTunes on Mac OS X.
- Max is a Macintosh audio extractor with LAME MP3 capabilities.
- BarbaBatch is an audio file format converter using LAME for mp3 encoding.
Cross Platform
- jRipper, a Java-based frontend for LAME which includes Windows and Linux binaries.
- Audacity, an audio recording, editing and transforming program, available for Windows, Linux, BSD, and Macintosh.
- Stickloader is another Java-based Lame frontend allowing files to be encoded easily via drag-and-drop.
