Page 1 of 2

L.A.M.E. living up to its N.A.M.E.

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:15 pm
by Buzz Mando
Hi,

I'm trying to burn an MP3 CD, and when I choose that as an option, it tells me to get LAME. This I've done, downloading vs. 3.97 and installing it about 6 times tonight and it keeps telling me to get LAME.

DP help said another way I could do it was make it into a quicktime movie, based on the soundbytes. I did that, but it is a recording of a speech from a cassette tape that I was able to clean up considerably using DP's plug-ins. All of those improvements were lost, as well as the fact that I spliced 3 separate sections on the tape into one long performance, now it's back to 3 separate quicktime movies.

How do I make a decent MP3 using DP 5.12?

Thanks

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:37 pm
by gatito25
Hi

you can finish your project as a .wav or .affi and the open the file with itunes, itunes have a very simple tool to convert the file to mp3, this will preserve all your file settings all effect

hope this helps :)

i know l.a.m.e can be a pain.

Re: L.A.M.E. living up to its N.A.M.E.

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:06 pm
by zed
--OR--

You could save yourself a lot of trouble and spend $32 on Audio Hijack Pro: http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/

This dandy little program will capture audio from your DP project (or anything else that outputs sound in your computer), and allow you to save the file in a wide range of formats. The quality of the resulting audio files seem to be as good as anything that is generated from within DP itself, so there is no degradation. And you can quickly mix a track without having to render effects or convert MIDI tracks to audio.

This is definitely your easiest way to get a quick Mp3 of what you are hearing in your project.

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:40 pm
by sdemott
Did you install the L.A.M.E. Framework into /Library/Frameworks or ~/Library/Frameworks? It seems to like to be in the former where DP is concerned.

And are you sure that whichever directory you dropped it into has not had any permissions altered?

Those are my first 2 thoughts.

L.A.M.E. works fine for me.

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:47 pm
by gearboy
Though I love Audio Hijack Pro, the L.A.M.E MP3 converter is the best that I have heard. Do yourself a favor. Don't export from DP as MP3. Just don't. Export in a "full-resolution" format, and then take it down to MP3. We're talking like 2 extra minutes here.

Use this:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/8837

It's a little L.A.M.E. encoder for iTunes. Sure, iTunes does MP3, but it sounds horrible in comparison to the L.A.M.E encoder. Install this, learn the code to get the settings you want. Export from DP as WAV or AIFF, Edit if needed, drag into an iTunes playlist, and then click "import" on the L.A.M.E for iTunes program and it will automatically import from the current iTunes playlist and drop it back into a "L.A.M.E. import" playlist.

Simple, plus you have a high-res master as well.

Jeff

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:25 pm
by Shooshie
There's a lot of advice here, but I don't see the link to the LAME framework installer that ALWAYS works. Everyone who has used this installer has said it worked for them. Give it a try (and remove others, if you can).

WARNING: This link downloads the installer:
http://www.ktunes.net/downloads/LAME.zip

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:03 pm
by Buzz Mando
I tried every LAME installer including the one mentioned at ktunes. None worked.

I made sure it was installed in the proper library file, too.

I downloaded the LAME to iTunes converter, but - in the end - I just loaded it as a AIFF file into iTunes and converted it to MP3 in iTunes.

But thanks for the help!

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:12 pm
by gearboy
Buzz Mando wrote: I downloaded the LAME to iTunes converter, but - in the end - I just loaded it as a AIFF file into iTunes and converted it to MP3 in iTunes.

But thanks for the help!
I'm telling you, use the LAME iTunes program. You'll be amazed at how much better it sounds. Seriously.


Jeff

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:26 pm
by kassonica
+1 to that.

It is the only mp3 converter i will touch.

The itunes lame converter is easy to use, i'd be doing it.

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:30 pm
by nickysnd
gearboy wrote:Though I love Audio Hijack Pro, the L.A.M.E MP3 converter is the best that I have heard. Do yourself a favor. Don't export from DP as MP3. Just don't. Export in a "full-resolution" format, and then take it down to MP3. We're talking like 2 extra minutes here.

Use this:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/8837

It's a little L.A.M.E. encoder for iTunes. Sure, iTunes does MP3, but it sounds horrible in comparison to the L.A.M.E encoder. Install this, learn the code to get the settings you want. Export from DP as WAV or AIFF, Edit if needed, drag into an iTunes playlist, and then click "import" on the L.A.M.E for iTunes program and it will automatically import from the current iTunes playlist and drop it back into a "L.A.M.E. import" playlist.

Simple, plus you have a high-res master as well.

Jeff
Thanks! I did that, and I have two questions:
- I don't seem to find the thing you call "L.A.M.E. import" playlist. iTunes encodes it as MP3 and then the new MP3 file appears in the default music playlist.
- How do I know that iTunes doesn't do its standard MP3 encoding?

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:35 pm
by Shooshie
Buzz Mando wrote:I tried every LAME installer including the one mentioned at ktunes. None worked.

I made sure it was installed in the proper library file, too.

I downloaded the LAME to iTunes converter, but - in the end - I just loaded it as a AIFF file into iTunes and converted it to MP3 in iTunes.

But thanks for the help!
Have you repaired permissions? I'd try that one in my link above, again, but repair permissions before and afterward. I don't know if that would fix it, but I can tell; you that the installer in that link has worked for me on at least 4 different Macs ranging from G4 Powerbook to Intel MacPro, and I've used it at least a dozen times, and in every version of DP since LAME was enabled in it. It always worked, and I currently use LAME when bouncing to mp3 from DP. I do that nearly every day, and it works every time. You've got a problem with your system, and it may be permissions that are preventing the install or the compiling or something.

Try repairing permissions and see if it makes any difference.

Shooshie

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:00 pm
by zed
Shooshie wrote:Have you repaired permissions? I'd try that one in my link above, again, but repair permissions before and afterward. I don't know if that would fix it...
Ha!

I'm surprised to see you giving this advice, dear Shooshie, after the thread you started last month. I thought your deduction was that in almost all cases repairing permission didn't do much of anything, and that it was a "zap the PRAM" diversion tactic for OSX. :shock:

Of course, repairing permissions won't hurt... but don't get too hopeful. :-)

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:06 pm
by Shooshie
zed wrote:
Shooshie wrote:Have you repaired permissions? I'd try that one in my link above, again, but repair permissions before and afterward. I don't know if that would fix it...
Ha!

I'm surprised to see you giving this advice, dear Shooshie, after the thread you started last month. I thought your deduction was that in almost all cases repairing permission didn't do much of anything, and that it was a "zap the PRAM" diversion tactic for OSX. :shock:

Of course, repairing permissions won't hurt... but don't get too hopeful. :-)
It's advised with a certain reservation, but I have to say that his system presents a challenge. It's obviously something in his system gone wrong, and it's not allowing the system either to see or to install LAME. It really does sound like a permissions problem. We'll see...


Shooshie

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 6:21 pm
by gearboy
nickysnd wrote: Thanks! I did that, and I have two questions:
- I don't seem to find the thing you call "L.A.M.E. import" playlist. iTunes encodes it as MP3 and then the new MP3 file appears in the default music playlist.
- How do I know that iTunes doesn't do its standard MP3 encoding?
You aren't doing the conversion in iTunes. You launch the iTunes-LAME program. You simply highlight a playlist in iTunes (possibly a CD, haven't tried this yet), then go back to the iTunes-Lame and click import on that program (after setting it up in preferences in iTunes LAME). It does indeed import back into a "LAME Import" playlist (maybe I have it set in preferences for this). I just did it, and it works fine. Remember, you are not clicking import in iTunes. You simply drop AIFF or WAV into a playlist that you create in iTunes. Then, making sure that you have that iTunes playlist highlighted, click import on iTunes LAME.

Jeff

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 6:30 pm
by David Polich
Audacity is an alternative. I've had great results with it. Load a .wav or .aif file into it and export as mp3, and you can vary the resolution of the mp3 as well (in Audacity's preferences). It doesn't need the L.A.M.E. convertor or anything else that is L.A.M.E. (sorry, I couldn't resist).

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/