Topic: LAME default command line in mo3 encoder

[termite]

Default command line includes now -k option which isn't very wise. Those default LAME filters have their meaning. It's lot better to cut high frequencies totally off than have them mangled with low bitrate lossy compression. Most of us can't hear them anyway so the filtering is inaudible.

[Ian @ un4seen]

It's true that the effect of the filtering is practically inaudible, if the sample is played at the rate that it was encoded at. But in MODs, the samples can be played at all sorts of rates, which can make the effect of the filtering very noticeable.

While testing, I found that the filtering made some samples sound "dead", and using "-k" brought them back to life. There probably are some tracks that'll sound better with the filter, but I didn't find any

[termite]

In CD audio -k is definitely worse than without it (in low bitrates). Might be different with typical mod-samples... hope it is. What you should at least do is switch LAME cbr line to

Lame --alt-preset cbr %b -k

where %b is bitrate. Alt-preset lines are well-tuned command line presets which sound a lot better than default settings (with -q0). I've tested them on regular CD audio only but there isn't any reason why they would do worse on mod-samples.