Hi guys,

If you would like to see how --alt-preset standard came about, visit the following thread at the Hydrogen Audio message boards.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=260&highlight=preset+standard

That thread also describes some of the other presets available for LAME, such as:

--alt-preset fast standard

--alt-preset extreme

The --alt-preset standard switch, invokes code in LAME that no other LAME switch uses, and I won't pretend to to try and understand the work done on the psycho-acoustic model that went into creating this switch.

This is what I can tell you about the --alt-preset standard switch:

- Files average out to about 192kb/s, using a variable bit-rate between 128kb/s and 320kb/s

- It was developed & tweaked to accomodate all types of music, and to fix problems with certain artifacts found in other encoders.

- It is the ultimate compromise between file size and quality. If you want perfect MP3 quality, encode at 320kb/s, if you want to save space, encode at 192 CBR. But if you want your music to get as close as possible to retaining perfect quality, while keeping file size as low as possible, that's what the group at Hydrogen Audio (Project Mayhem) set out to achieve.

- I can also tell you that the people working on the tweaking are not your average, run of the mill music listeners. They have some brilliant people doing the tweaking, and have performed double-blind tests using high-end equipment with people who have 'golden ears' that can detect minute flaws that us regular humans would never hear.

If nothing else, you may want to check out the message boards at HydrogenAudio.org they have some pretty interesting threads.

Chris Myden
http://www.ChrisMyden.com