LAME

What is LAME?

LAME is a high-quality MPEG Audio Layer III (MP3) encoder licensed under the LGPL. It is considered the best MP3 encoder for mid-high bitrates and variable bitrate (VBR) encoding. Ongoing quality and speed improvements have likely made LAME the only actively developed MP3 encoder. The project began as a patch against the 8hz-MP3 encoder sources by Mike Cheng, who later decided to start from scratch based on the dist10 sources to focus on improving speed while maintaining quality. This branch became LAME 2.0, and it was not until LAME 3.81 that all dist10 code was replaced, making LAME more than just a patch. The project quickly grew into a team effort, with Mark Taylor becoming the leader and pursuing increased quality in addition to better speed. He developed a new psychoacoustic model called gpsycho, which was first released in version 3.0. Since Mark Taylor's departure from project leadership in the early 2000s, the active developers have cooperated to lead the project. Compiled binaries of the latest LAME versions are always available at the provided links

Highlights

• High-quality MP3 encoding at mid-high bitrates and VBR
• Ongoing quality and speed improvements, making it the only actively developed MP3 encoder
• Started as a patch against 8hz-MP3 encoder, later built from scratch based on dist10 sources
• Transition from a patch to a complete replacement of dist10 code in LAME 3.81
• Development led by Mike Cheng initially, then Mark Taylor who introduced the gpsycho psychoacoustic model
• Current development led through cooperation of active developers