The word, LAME..
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LAME is an MPEG-1 audio layer 3 (MP3) encoder. The
name LAME is a recursive acronym for LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder,
reflecting LAME's early history when it was not yet a complete
encoder in itself.
As of 2004, the consensus is that LAME produces the highest-quality
MP3 files for bitrates greater or equal to 128 kbit/s. In a public
listening test early in 2004, LAME MP3 files were the best 128
kbit/s MP3 files compared to the uncompressed original audio.
[1]
Released under the GNU Lesser General Public License, LAME is free
software.
History and development
At one time, LAME was simply a set of patches against the
separately distributed ISO demonstration source, hence the claim
that it "ain't an encoder". The ISO code had a restrictive license
but was available without charge. In May 2000, the LAME project
reimplemented the last of the ISO source code, and thus LAME was
then a totally new implementation compiling recent versions of
LAME no longer requires the ISO source code. As recent LAME
releases are no longer a patch against ISO encoder code, LAME is
now itself an MP3 encoder and the LAME acronym has become a
misnomer.
Legal issues
LAME, as any MP3 encoder, is claimed to implement some processes
covered by some patents filed by Fraunhofer.
LAME developers state that since their code is only released in
source form, it should only be considered as a description of an
MP3 encoder, and thus does not infringe any patent by itself when
released as source code only. At the same time, they advise
obtaining a patents license before including a compiled version of
the encoder into a product.
The LAME software is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public
License (LGPL). In November, 2005 there were reports that the
Extended Copy Protection software included on some SONY Compact
Discs includes portions of the LAME library without complying with
the terms of the LGPL.
LAME-compatible software
Linux and Compatible Operating Systems
* Grip, a front-end for use with GNOME
* KAudioCreator, part of the KDE desktop.
* K3b, KDE's CD-R and DVD authoring software can rip audio CDs as
well
Microsoft Windows
* RazorLame (formerly RazorBlade), a Microsoft Windows front-end
user interface for the commandline LAME Encoder executable.
* Lamedrop, easy to use front-end in Windows, similar to
oggdrop
* winLAME
* ALL2LAME, A minimalist frontend for LAME that allows piping from
commandline decoders of other formats, such as FLAC and Monkey's
Audio.
* CDex, Windows CD audio extractor
* Exact Audio Copy (EAC), Windows audio grabber for CD-ROM
drives
* Audiograbber
* foobar2000, an audio player that supports transcoding to
LAME
* Burrrn, a simple Cdrdao-based gapless audio CD burning utility
that uses LAME in decoding mode to maximize audio quality.
* JRiver Media Center, A Media Player/Manager which supports
transcoding to LAME
Apple Macintosh
* iTunes-LAME, a front end that integrates LAME with iTunes on Mac
OS X.
* Max is a Macintosh audio extractor with LAME MP3
capabilities.
* BarbaBatch is an audio file format converter using LAME for mp3
encoding.
Cross Platform
* jRipper, a Java-based frontend for LAME which includes Windows
and Linux binaries.
* Audacity, an audio recording, editing and transforming program,
available for Windows, Linux, BSD, and Macintosh.
* Stickloader is another Java-based Lame frontend allowing files to
be encoded easily via drag-and-drop.
