LAMEgui Documentation
Simply install LAME as /boot/home/config/bin/lame or /boot/home/config/bin/lame-dec and you can use LAMEgui as a frontend for encoding music files without opening a Terminal where you have to type in all settings every time.
Now let's look at the tabview at the top left. There you can set the compression method. Available are CBR, VBR, ABR and COMP. If you want to know how to change settings of them in LAMEgui go on reading...
This is the default encoding method. It is used very often to compress music and most files you get from the internet are encoded with CBR (Constant Bit Rate). Just drag the slider to the bit rate you want encode at. Usually a bit rate of 128 kbit/s is used at which you get small files and good quality. Choose a higher bit rate (around 192 kbit/s) to get a better quality but larger files or choose a lower bit rate (e. g. 64 kbit/s) for voice recordings, ...
The VBR (Variable Bit Rate) is the one I prefer. The encoder tries to find out the best size for a single frame instead of using frames of the same size all the time. So every frame is adapted to the audio signal. This means that silent parts need less space than more dynamic parts. The slider at the top lets you specify the minimum bit rate that should be used. However, LAME uses the smallest bit rate on silent frames (zero value) which is 32 kbit/s for MPEG1 layer 3 files. The maximum bit rate slider should not be too low (not below 128) on hifi music files. I suggest to keep the maximum slider at 320 kbit/s to prevent the encoder of too heavy compressing. The quality slider is very important. With this slider you can make the encoder to spend more large frames to get better quality (the lower the quality value the better the quality) and vice versa. The default value for quality is 4. Recommended is a quality value of 3 or 2. (You will get larger files if you decrease the quality value, of course.)
This is almost the same as the VBR method. The frame size of the mp3 file is variable, too. But ABR (Average Bit Rate) lets you set any bit rate you like. The encoder tries now to make a mp3 file with an average rate you have specified. But the encoder may use any frame sizes in the selected range (minimum to maximum).
COMP means »compression« and you tell the encoder the compression ratio only. (9x should be OK for normal quality. If you want good quality any other method is recommended. Higher ratios, let's say above 23x, are rather useless)
| If you want to encode music from a audio compact disc you normally have to copy the files from the CD to your hard disk first. With the CD ripper option of LAMEgui you can encode them directly into MPEG format onto the hard disk. Just mount the CD and the CD ripper menu will become active. Choose the CD from which you want to encode from (sizes in MB will help you to find the correct CD if you have more then one mounted). All tracks found on the CD are added to the file list. | 
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Now, after we have added the CD tracks to the file list, we select the files which should be encoded. Click on every file you want to encode and press and hold
the SHIFT-key as it is done in every multiple-selection-list on the BeOS. There are three possibilities how LAMEgui could handle your choice:
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Well, when a file is encoded, what should LAMEgui do with it? You can choose one way out of three what happens with the input file(s) when the encoding process has finished:
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