The --alt-preset switches are designed to provide the highest possible quality.

They have for the most part been subject to and tuned via rigorous double blind listening tests to verify and achieve this objective.

These are continually updated to coincide with the latest developments that occur and as a result should provide you with nearly the best quality currently possible from LAME.

To activate these presets:

For VBR modes (generally highest quality):

"--alt-preset standard" This preset should generally be transparent to most people on most music and is already quite high in quality.

"--alt-preset extreme" If you have extremely good hearing and similar equipment, this preset will generally provide slightly higher quality than the "standard" mode.

For CBR 320kbps (highest quality possible from the --alt-preset switches):

"--alt-preset insane" This preset will usually be overkill for most people and most situations, but if you must have the absolute highest quality with no regard to filesize, this is the way to go.

For ABR modes (high quality per given bitrate but not as high as VBR):

"--alt-preset <kbps>" Using this preset will usually give you good quality at a specified bitrate. Depending on the bitrate entered, this preset will determine the optimal settings for that particular situation. While this approach works, it is not nearly as flexible as VBR, and usually will not attain the same level of quality as VBR at higher bitrates.

The following options are also available for the corresponding profiles:

<fast> standard
<fast> extreme
insane
<cbr> (ABR Mode) - The ABR Mode is implied. To use it, simply specify a bitrate. For example:
"--alt-preset 185" activates this preset and uses 185 as an average kbps.

"fast" - Enables the new fast VBR for a particular profile. The disadvantage to the speed switch is that often times the bitrate will be slightly higher than with the normal mode and quality may be slightly lower also.

"cbr" - If you use the ABR mode (read above) with a significant bitrate such as 80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 320, you can use the "cbr" option to force CBR mode encoding instead of the standard abr mode. ABR does provide higher quality but CBR may be useful in situations such as when streaming an mp3 over the internet may be important.

For example:

or "lame --alt-preset fast standard <input file> <output file>"
or "lame --alt-preset cbr 192 <input file> <output file>"
or "lame --alt-preset 172 <input file> <output file>"
or "lame --alt-preset extreme <input file> <output file>"