Audacity Forum

Lame mp3 was free at one time and I had it on my computer but some how it is gone...I want to convert my songs created in Audacity to mp3's but cannot find a free lame anywhere...does anyone know how I can find one...every search has come up with a purchase of winrare or something like that...any ideas?

Try this page from the Audacity Wiki: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... stallation

WC

It does not work either...it appears that WinRare charges 29.00 fee to get the Lame encoder...any other ideas?

That may be an unfortunate choice of Google words. WinRAR is a data compressor, not a sound compressor.

http://audacityteam.org/help/faq?s=inst ... m=lame-mp3

That's the download manager page...free.

Koz

Winrar charges 29.00...do I have to pay that to get Lame?

When I go to convert to mp3 it reads cannot open encoding library and all links lead to a pay situation from winrar...try it...you will see

<<<Winrar charges 29.00...do I have to pay that to get Lame?>>>

No. "lame" is a open source, multiple format converter. The released version of it is free to whoever wants it--or to modify it as you wish. There's nothing preventing somebody from "packaging" it and selling it as a commercial product, but the free version is available for anybody to download and use. It's name means "Lame Ain't an MP3 Encoder." It's a recursive joke. Programmers don't get out much.

<<<When I go to convert to mp3 it reads cannot open encoding library and all links lead to a pay situation from winrar...try it...you will see>>>

I have lame installed on a number of computers and I've never been pointed to a separate web site. I suspect you downloaded something that claimed to be lame, but instead was a steering program or ad-ware for WinRAR. See if what you got will let you delete it. Then go up to the web site I posted and get the right thing and install that. There are different versions of lame depending on your machine, operating system, and version of Audacity, so you do need to get the right one.

Koz

Just to confirm - the links on http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... stallation for downloading LAME are correct and working - LAME is free open source software and does not require WinRar.