Mudgel is right. Cakewalk's trial encoder is a Fraunhofer as well, unlocking it is simply paying the royalties (through cakewalk) to Fraunhofer for Sonar's permanent ability to use their encoder. Lame is freeware but there is a distribution problem... you technically cannot distribute an Mp3 encoder in its entire form. To be able to legally distribute it, it cannot be in its complete compiled form.
 Sonar does us a favor by not automatically including the full version. We would have to pay that royalty upon purchase of Sonar, even though we may never actually use the encoder.
 LAME is better than Fraunhofer hands-down at encoding Mp3. That may have been different at one time, but not anymore.

ahhh so it is! I seem to learn something new every day. it USED to be the Fraunhofer codec... i was not aware that had changed at all. Phew! i got a little apprehensive for a second, I thought the patch solution I mentioned last page was doomed to be un-distributable!

at first i had an issue with it..thinking why cant they include it..but when you look into you realize why..and mugal is right

aaronbewza


Mudgel is right. Cakewalk's trial encoder is a Fraunhofer as well, unlocking it is simply paying the royalties (through cakewalk) to Fraunhofer for Sonar's permanent ability to use their encoder. Lame is freeware but there is a distribution problem... you technically cannot distribute an Mp3 encoder in its entire form. To be able to legally distribute it, it cannot be in its complete compiled form.
Sonar does us a favor by not automatically including the full version. We would have to pay that royalty upon purchase of Sonar, even though we may never actually use the encoder.
LAME is better than Fraunhofer hands-down at encoding Mp3. That may have been different at one time, but not anymore.

So are you saying that the MP3 Encoder for cakewalk DAWs (i am using sonar x1 studio) were trials?! I have exported  MANY mp3 files but now I try and it gives this buy an encoder message

Hello,
 
Something I've noticed when using Audacity for MP3 conversion is that it adds a very small moment of silence at the start of the file.
 
During writing sessions (when resolution is less important than file size) I've been emailing my keyboard parts to other band members (and vice versa) as MP3 files for them to insert into their local copies of the Sonar projects. When the guitarist did a mixdown recently I could clearly hear that the keyboards were out of sync (slightly late), and blamed him. After getting hold of his copy of the project files, and experimenting with importing MP3s and wavs, I realised the fault lay with the files I'd sent.
 
Suffice to say, we're now using Dropbox and exchanging the original wavs.
 
Anyone tried reimporting MP3s created using other encoders into their projects and noticed a similar problem?
 
Piers.

Piers66


Hello,
 
Something I've noticed when using Audacity for MP3 conversion is that it adds a very small moment of silence at the start of the file.
 
During writing sessions (when resolution is less important than file size) I've been emailing my keyboard parts to other band members (and vice versa) as MP3 files for them to insert into their local copies of the Sonar projects. When the guitarist did a mixdown recently I could clearly hear that the keyboards were out of sync (slightly late), and blamed him. After getting hold of his copy of the project files, and experimenting with importing MP3s and wavs, I realised the fault lay with the files I'd sent.
 
Suffice to say, we're now using Dropbox and exchanging the original wavs.
 
Anyone tried reimporting MP3s created using other encoders into their projects and noticed a similar problem?
 
Piers.

I use Sound Forge to create MP3 files, and it also puts a little silence at the beginning of the file. The only way I have manged to create an MP3 without added silence is by using iTunes to do the conversion.
 
I believe this is an MP3 thing going on which is why it appears in most programs. In the case of iTunes, I suspect (yes, pure speculation on my part) they had to solve the problem or a continuous CD would break all over the place where songs flow into one another.

When I purchased the MP3 activation executable from Cake (for v8.3 at the time), it was to unlock the higher bitrate for the LAME encoder (eg. 320 kbps). I was under the impression that this was the only reason why I needed to spend more $, without realizing that I was still on the 30 day trial, which only offered a top rate of 192 kbps. After purchasing Sound Forge (yes, I'm currently using version 10), I realized that I much preferred the Fraunhofer codec over the Lame codec. But both are very good. 

I personally think you are a tad too hard on them. It's a small "one-time" fee which offers me the convenience of integration in my Sonar environment. I really don't have a problem with it and ... have a look here:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2411493

well, i pulled it off my proaudio CD. It was fairly painless. (Except for finding the CD).