ORIGINAL: Jesse G

Instructions:
Open SONAR 3, 4, 5 and go to Tools -> Cakewalk Ext. Encoder Config.
In the Friendly Name Field write: Lame Mp3 Encoder.
In the Extension field write: .mp3
In the Description field write whatever you want.
In the Path field write the path where the Lame encoder is located. That is where lame.exe and lame_enc.dll are located. I keep my Lame encoder in my C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Utilities\Lame Folder or (copy and past the extracted zip file to your Sonar shared utilities folder and then when you have to perform this step, click the browse button to find the location.
In the Command Line field write: lame -b 192 -m j %I %O
Press Save button.
Uncheck Keep Wave File.

(In Sonar 5 I went to the "Tools" menu and there is no choise for "Cakewalk Ext. Encoder Config." Where is it?

I use the LAME 3.96.1 encoder and I agree, it's the way to go - sounds great and it's free. I have configured Sonar to export using Jesse G.'s advice, and also have RazorLame to use as a stand-alone front-end.

One question - what is the difference between "joint stereo" and "stereo" encoding and why would one be better or more desirable than the other?

A quick google confirmed my understanding!

Joint Stereo: The Myths ... and The Realities

If gives the encoder an additional compression technique like M/S, which it can use on a frame-by-frame basis to encode the audio in L/R or M/S, whichever is better for the given bitrate.

Regards,
David

ORIGINAL: Jesse G

The LAME encoder is FREE and even Scott R. Garrigus, or was it Craig Anderton, well one of them wrote an article on how to configure Sonar to use the Lame MP3 encoder. Also, when you upgrade, from an earlier version of Sonar and allow Sonar to copy its settings, the MP3 settings are copied to the next version as well.

Follow these directions:

If you don't want to unlock(buy) the cakewalk mp3 encoder, you can invoke the Lame mp3 encoder directly from SONAR 3, 4, 5. With this you don't need to first export to wav and then encode to mp3. Remember that the Lame mp3 encoder is high quality, open source and free.

Download and install the lame 3.96.1 (STABLE) encoder. ~~~~> HERE <~~~~~
If you want to select your own version of a Lame encoder, download from the ~~~> LAME ENCODER SITE <~~~~

Instructions:
Open SONAR 3, 4, 5 and go to Tools -> Cakewalk Ext. Encoder Config.
In the Friendly Name Field write: Lame Mp3 Encoder.
In the Extension field write: .mp3
In the Description field write whatever you want.
In the Path field write the path where the Lame encoder is located. That is where lame.exe and lame_enc.dll are located. I keep my Lame encoder in my C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Utilities\Lame Folder or (copy and past the extracted zip file to your Sonar shared utilities folder and then when you have to perform this step, click the browse button to find the location.
In the Command Line field write: lame -b 192 -m j %I %O
Press Save button.
Uncheck Keep Wave File.

This will export to a 192Kbps, joint stereo mp3 file. If you want 128Kbps, replace 192 with 128 in the Command Line field. The next time you click on File->Export->Audio in SONAR 3, 4, 5 you'll find 'Lame mp3 encoder' as a type of audio.

Hope this helps,

Peace

i tried that but it doesn't seem to be working. every time i click export it tells me that i have to unlock the cakewalk mp3 encoder. what's wrong?

To clear up the issues with licensing and LAME - I found this via the cwenc faq( http://cwenc.sourceforge.net/faq.html ):

"Q: What about MP3 licensing? I have read that you need to have a license from Fraunhofer/Thomson if you use an MP3 encoder?
A: Strictly speaking this is correct. According to the licensing conditions put forward by Thomson (who owns the MP3 patents), anyone who develops software with MP3 encoding or decoding must purchase a license for each copy of the software sold. But for free software they have unofficialy accepted that no such fee is required."

--

Thus, it's OKAY to use the free LAME encoder, and you're not going to get pegged by Thomson for it. Cakewalk's implementation of the LAME encoder is a pay-for product probably mostly because 1) Sonar isn't free and 2) Thomson could change their license down the road. File that under "cross that bridge when it happens" as far as I'm concerned.

The big problem I have with Cakewalk's LAME encoder version is that they're obscurring the settings that you get if you download it and set it up as an external encoder. The people who use that one get better results, it seems, and I think it's worth a try. Definitely use Variable Bit Rate, as it will help compensate for quality problems, especially at lower bit rates. Also - I hope you're not sending the encoder a stream that peaks at 0db or 100% - mp3 will introduce some artifacts if there's no headroom. Better to compress/limit the program content a bit for the podcast and encode it when the max level is somewhere around -3db give or take. You may also want to make sure you don't have any dc offset, extreme low frequencies, etc, as these can rob some fidelity. Better still would be to do external ogg's but I guess that's out for podcasting. Ogg-Vorbis is well known to be better than mp3 at basically any bitrate, but it's more audible with lower bitrates, obviously.

pete

ORIGINAL: pharohoknaughty

Jesse

Loaded the lame processor up and works great.

Any thoughts on how to build the tag info into it?

Tags can be set up as in the example below:
lame %I -b 192 -m j -h -c --tt "%T" --ta "%A" --ty 2006 --tc "%C" %O

In this case we are setting the MP3 Title to the Project title, the MP3 Artist tag to the Project Author info, the MP3 Year tag to 2006 and the MP3 Comment tag to the Project Copyright info. We are also converting at 192kbps, using Joint stereo and setting the algorithms, via the -h switch, to -q 2 (the default is -q 5). Incorrect use of the latter switch may explain why some users are not getting as good a result as they would expect at similar bit rates.

Cheers
Tim

any reason for not using one of the recommended settings?

Nope! We just get comfortable with what we know works. But, I'll probably start a religious war here when I say, I like the "--preset fast standard" better than my current complicated command line and it encoded faster to a smaller file. Win/win!

ORIGINAL: Blizzar180

ORIGINAL: Jesse G

The LAME encoder is FREE and even Scott R. Garrigus, or was it Craig Anderton, well one of them wrote an article on how to configure Sonar to use the Lame MP3 encoder. Also, when you upgrade, from an earlier version of Sonar and allow Sonar to copy its settings, the MP3 settings are copied to the next version as well.

Follow these directions:

If you don't want to unlock(buy) the cakewalk mp3 encoder, you can invoke the Lame mp3 encoder directly from SONAR 3, 4, 5. With this you don't need to first export to wav and then encode to mp3. Remember that the Lame mp3 encoder is high quality, open source and free.

Download and install the lame 3.96.1 (STABLE) encoder. ~~~~> HERE <~~~~~
If you want to select your own version of a Lame encoder, download from the ~~~> LAME ENCODER SITE <~~~~

Instructions:
Open SONAR 3, 4, 5 and go to Tools -> Cakewalk Ext. Encoder Config.
In the Friendly Name Field write: Lame Mp3 Encoder.
In the Extension field write: .mp3
In the Description field write whatever you want.
In the Path field write the path where the Lame encoder is located. That is where lame.exe and lame_enc.dll are located. I keep my Lame encoder in my C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Utilities\Lame Folder or (copy and past the extracted zip file to your Sonar shared utilities folder and then when you have to perform this step, click the browse button to find the location.
In the Command Line field write: lame -b 192 -m j %I %O
Press Save button.
Uncheck Keep Wave File.

This will export to a 192Kbps, joint stereo mp3 file. If you want 128Kbps, replace 192 with 128 in the Command Line field. The next time you click on File->Export->Audio in SONAR 3, 4, 5 you'll find 'Lame mp3 encoder' as a type of audio.

Hope this helps,

Peace

i tried that but it doesn't seem to be working. every time i click export it tells me that i have to unlock the cakewalk mp3 encoder. what's wrong?

You might have made the mistake I just made: clicking close after doing all the setup without clicking the SAVE button at the top right first.

Got it up and running, and I can't tell it apart from the Sound Forge encoder on a render of the same track at the same bit rate. Which is nice, as it saves me a step when making an mp3 to email.

ORIGINAL: Jesse G


In the Command Line field write: lame -b 192 -m j %I %O

This will give a quality level that most people can not distinguish from CD. But if that isn't enough and you don't mind the files being bigger, use the following line:

lame --alt-preset insane %I %O

UnderTow

I had this setup in 5 and working. I installed Sonar 6 on a new computer and spent a while searching for Jesse's instructions on setting lame up which worked great before but in 6 I don't see anywhere to set it up. Just wondering if there is an update on how to do this in 6.

Thanks

Why do people get so confused with this MP3 encoder thing?

LAME is free.

SONAR does not come bundled with LAME .

The MP3 encoder sold by Cakewalk uses the Fraunhofer IIS algorithm.

The reason you have to pay for the MP3 encoder that Cakewalk bundle with SONAR is because
of a royalty charged by Fraunhofer.

To quote Wikipedia:

"The MP3 compression algorithm was invented and patented by Fraunhofer IIS.
Its license revenues generated about €100,000,000 in revenue to the society in 2005."

Once again, Sonar 4, Sonar 5, and Sonar 6 uses LAME.

ORIGINAL: bigweb

Why do people get so confused with this MP3 encoder thing?

LAME is free.

SONAR does not come bundled with LAME .

The MP3 encoder sold by Cakewalk uses the Fraunhofer IIS algorithm.

The reason you have to pay for the MP3 encoder that Cakewalk bundle with SONAR is because
of a royalty charged by Fraunhofer.

To quote Wikipedia:

"The MP3 compression algorithm was invented and patented by Fraunhofer IIS.
Its license revenues generated about €100,000,000 in revenue to the society in 2005."

ORIGINAL: bigweb

ORIGINAL: emfrank72
I had this setup in 5 and working. I installed Sonar 6 on a new computer and spent a while searching for Jesse's instructions on setting lame up which worked great before but in 6 I don't see anywhere to set it up. Just wondering if there is an update on how to do this in 6.

It's in the "Tools" menu.

Cakewalk External Encoder Config

It's in the "Tools" menu.

Cakewalk External Encoder Config

It used to be under the tools menu in Sonar 5. But unless I'm blind, it is not there in 6. But I did find the encoder utility under cakewalk\shared utilities. Thanks

If you care about the best quality available go with -ms (stereo), and I also recommend the -k option to remove the lowpass filter.