I've never tried actual NCH software, but I believe they most probably already use LAME there. I guess my real question is this: Is there something available out there that would give a better quality result than NCH Switch? Or does that already give as best quality as is possible in conversion to MP3? That's case for example of Pro Tools, Samplitude or mentioned software by Sonnox. It's commercial library, you have to pay for its use.īasically, when some software doesn't use LAME for MP3 encoding, it employs this FhG encoder library.
The other widespread library is by Fraunhofer institute FhG. I guess, that's also reason, why old Live didn't have MP3 export and the recent version 10 has that built-in. But in both cases, it's not necessary to pay further fees to licensing organisation for the format. If they want, they can use free open-source library, or pay for the commercial one. So vendors doesn't have to worry about that issue. Also very nice for user is, patents for MP3 (as a format) expired in 2017. Roots of MP3 format are almost 30 years old now and it's pretty much assumed, its encoders was already optimised as much as possible. However in general, MP3 encoders are pretty much solved problem. It's very mature project with lot of contribution, listening tests and continuous improvements. Development of own encoder isn't trivial and LAME has already 22 years of its development. Not just because it's free, but because it is best.
In vast majority of cases, when some another software (be it DAW or some multi-format converter tool) has MP3 encoding support, it actually uses this very library underneath. But non-free doesn't mean better.Īrguably the best current MP3 encoder is LAME, which happens to be open-source library and related command-line utility. The one I am using (NHC Switch) is something I purchased and it seems ok.I see, what you're looking for. I was thinking non-free because I thought maybe you could get better quality in software you have to pay for.
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