Bugzilla – Bug 1373
Enh: Add automatic ability to export as LAME default MP3 (128 kbps if stereo, 64 kbps if mono).
Last modified: 2018-08-20 11:45:16 UTC
See http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?p=239015#p239015. The fix for Bug 285 provided a "Force export to mono" option at the specified bit rate. This had 5 votes on Wiki Feature Requests. This enhancement (15 votes on Wiki Feature Requests) would implement the other part of the suggestion in the above URL, a checkbox "LAME default (128 kbps joint stereo / 64 kbps mono, CBR)". "Auto" would be a shorter name than "LAME default". This saves the user changing the bit rate every time they change between exporting from mono or stereo material. It is the same as using the default lame - "%f" command in (external program), but command-line is uncomfortable for many users.
Maybe we should consider just when those 15 votes were made. In the past when disks were smaller (and large iPods were rare) Apple used to sell all its music at 128 kbps stereo. As disk size increased and beacame more affordable in such devices Apple moved to selling misic at 256 kbps stereo - and I would suggest that this is the new de-facto "standard" for modern MP3 compression. And yes I know many folk use greater compression to achieve smaller sizes for webstreaming (I myself use 192 CBR Stero for the two radio programmes I prepare professionally for webstreaming). So instead I would actullay argue for 256 rather than 192 (as now) or 128 (as requested here) to become the default setting when the user choosed CBR or ABR.
Currently I'm -1 for this enhancement. If the user selects "mono 64 kbps CBR MP3", they get "mono 64 kbps CBR MP3". On balance I think that the additional complication and potential for misunderstanding of an "auto" setting outweighs the suggested benefit.
(In reply to Peter Sampson from comment #1) I found two votes in the last year for this, but I think at least six votes date from the early days of feature requests. This proposed Enh is a watering down of a few of the earliest votes which originally wanted a "half bit rate checkbox" to apply to whatever the selected bit rate was, but that has obvious pitfalls. Yes, you could argue about the bit rate for the enhancement being too low, but I conversely argue the current Audacity default bit rate is too high. If we choose a higher rate, we can't call it LAME default. What a few of these people are doing (apparently) is choosing some "no options" button in some other encoding app(s) that are LAME front-ends. I have not found what apps these are. This then gives the user 128 or 64 kpbs without further effort according to the file being mono or stereo. If the input is stereo, they always want a stereo output file. I know Steve is not keen so I am happy to leave it on the back burner. If it was implemented instead as an extra choice in the "Quality" dropdown when choosing Constant bit rate, where there is space to say what it does, I don't think it would be confusing at all (unless people chose it in error). That also gives scope for a low and high quality auto "choice".
(In reply to Gale Andrews from comment #3) >I know Steve is not keen so I am happy to leave it on the back burner. Back-burner sounds fine ...
Archived on https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Gale%27s_wish_list
