Any good (free) VBR codecs?

manveruppd · 15 Jan 2007 at 22:38

As title. I normally encode using CDEx at a constant bitrate of 192kbps with the Lame mp3 codec, but I thought I'd try a VBR format to save some space so I can fit more stuff on my phone's SD card. Tried encoding some orchestral music using Windows Media Player's vbr wma codec and it's dire. Well, actually it's passable for 80% of each track's length, but the bitrate seems to drop very suddenly and very audibly at very strange places - I thought the idea of vbr was to use lower bitrates during passages where nothing much is going on audibly, but WMP seems to do it whenever it likes to and it spoils the music.

So, are there any intelligent vbr codecs about or is such a thing a utopian dream?

FrostedNipple · 15 Jan 2007 at 22:40

just get a bigger sd card, they do 1gig ones for under a tenner, then you dont have to worry about space, i mean how many songs do you want on a phone, just get an ipod or summin

DDave · 15 Jan 2007 at 23:03

The best way of making VBR mp3's would be using EAC and the latest stable version of LAME.

You could always just use CDex as that supports VBR if you fiddle around in the options although it uses an ancient version of LAME.

As for the comment about using an ipod, why carry around 2 pieces of equipment when you only need one especially when some phones mp3 playing capabilities are just as good as an ipod. (I prefer my w850i over my nano)

masslac · 15 Jan 2007 at 23:26

DDave said:
The best way of making VBR mp3's would be using EAC and the latest stable version of LAME.

Agreed 100%. By far the best way to make back-ups etc of your CDs.

Will_3rd · 15 Jan 2007 at 23:48

masslac said:
Agreed 100%. By far the best way to make back-ups etc of your CDs.

Ditto, LAME all the way!

manveruppd · 19 Jan 2007 at 08:55

Thanks, I'll give EAC a try!

Another question: is there any way I can take an entire folder of 192kbps mp3 files and convert them all at once to 96kbps? I use Nero to do them one by one but I'm too lazy, I'd rather have something that can do them all together, copy them to a separate folder to leave the original files untouched, AND chew my food for me!