Audacity Forum

Hi all,
I'm using the latest beta of Audacity 1.3.7 on Windows XP. I want to be able to export to MP3 using LAME (lame_enc.dll).

If I use the build of LAME from http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/libmp3lame-win-3.98.2.zip then it works fine. In Audacity's Preferences (Import/Export page) it correctly lists the LAME version as 3.98.2, and I can export a recording to MP3 without problem.

However, if I use any other build of LAME (lame_enc.dll), such as the one at http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Lame_Encoder.htm or at http://lame.bakerweb.biz (both of which have significantly different file sizes for lame_enc.dll), then it doesn't work. In Audacity's Preferences, when I click the Locate button and browse to the lame_enc.dll file, I get this error after selecting the file:

"You are linking to lame_enc.dll v3.98. This version is not compatible with Audacity 1.3.7. Please download the latest version of the LAME MP3 library."

The thing is, the version of lame_enc.dll I have selected is the latest version - it's 3.98.2 (not 3.98 as reported by the error). So I don't understand why those builds won't work, and only the build from http://lame.buanzo.com.ar will work. Is there a reason for this, or is it a bug?

Cheers,
Jeremy

That's something they just did in 1.3.7. I have had problems with the LAME encoder (I posted a few song samples) where it was really messing with the sound. I'm back to using LAME 3.9.6 with Audacity 1.3.6 for the time being. That seems to work fine (1.3.7 has a whole bunch of problems going on, besides and I don't need the aggravation )

Tony

Okay, so you're saying it's just an issue with Audacity 1.3.7 then, and not by design? In that case, I guess I will just have to wait for the final version of Audacity which hopefully will work properly with all builds of LAME. I guess I'll try 1.3.6 in the meantime.

Cheers,
Jeremy

KiwiBloke wrote:Okay, so you're saying it's just an issue with Audacity 1.3.7 then, and not by design? In that case, I guess I will just have to wait for the final version of Audacity which hopefully will work properly with all builds of LAME. I guess I'll try 1.3.6 in the meantime.

Actually it was designed that way (we had discussion about all this a couple or 4 weeks ago.

http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=8488

The reason for the change was to stabilize some of the ID Tag settings. The impression I got was that they were going to revert back but I'm not on the team so take that for what it's worth.

Tony

Hmm - I just read through http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=8488 and I don't see anything there relating to my problem/question.

I have three different builds of LAME / lame_enc.dll. All three of them are version 3.98.2, but they were compiled by different people and (for some reason) they have different file sizes. I downloaded them from:

http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/libmp3lame-win-3.98.2.zip
http://www.free-codecs.com/download_sof ... =4755&s=22
http://lame.bakerweb.biz/lame-3.98.2.7z

However only the first one, from buanzo.com.ar, works with Audacity 1.3.7. The other two give the error I posted above, even though they are version 3.98.2.

I get that Audacity 1.3.7 has been designed to only work with LAME 3.98.2 and nothing earlier. What I don't get, is why Audacity 1.3.7 won't work with those other builds of LAME 3.98.2.

The build from free-codecs.com seems to be the most widely-distributed build, ie. it's available for download from many other websites too.

Incidentally, why are these three builds of lame_enc.dll so different with their file sizes? One has a file size of 372 KB, another is 473 KB, and the third is 840 KB. Is there a reason for that?

Cheers,
Jeremy

KiwiBloke wrote:Hmm - I just read through http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=8488 and I don't see anything there relating to my problem/question.

Well that just about some of the MP3 problems in general

I have three different builds of LAME / lame_enc.dll. All three of them are version 3.98.2, but they were compiled by different people and (for some reason) they have different file sizes. I downloaded them from:

http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/libmp3lame-win-3.98.2.zip
http://www.free-codecs.com/download_sof ... =4755&s=22
http://lame.bakerweb.biz/lame-3.98.2.7z

However only the first one, from buanzo.com.ar, works with Audacity 1.3.7. The other two give the error I posted above, even though they are version 3.98.2.

I get that Audacity 1.3.7 has been designed to only work with LAME 3.98.2 and nothing earlier. What I don't get, is why Audacity 1.3.7 won't work with those other builds of LAME 3.98.2.

Because if I am remembering what I read on this board someplace, that the buanzo.com.ar version was compiled specifically for Audacity and that 1.3.7 is keyed to that particular build. As to the difference in file sizes, I can't speak to other that either different features were incorporated into the code, or different compilers were used to make the build. I'm an old Basic hack meself so that's pretty much the beginning and end of my programming knowledge.

Tony

KiwiBloke wrote:However only the first one, from buanzo.com.ar, works with Audacity 1.3.7.

So what's the problem?

If you build both Audacity and Lame from their source code on the same computer, then provided that all the dependencies are met, then they will probably both work, and work together. The Audacity developers have saved you the time and trouble of compiling the source code yourself, and provided up to date builds of both programs. I've been testing the 3.98.2 version of Lame that has been built for Audacity on Audacity 1.3.8 alpha and it works perfectly, so I'm happy.

The "problem" is simply that I think Audacity should support any compilation of LAME 3.98.2, not just a specific one. If I want to use one of the other compilations for whatever reason, such as the more widely available one from free-codecs.com, then I can't do that - or I have to mess about with two copies of LAME - one for Audacity, and one for any other program I might use LAME with (RazorLAME, Winamp, EAC, etc).

Unfortunately, what I'm about to post will not help you use other third party lame_enc.dll's, but it will help you use your own build.

I used to use Audacity 1.2.6 with a build of lame_enc.dll from version 3.97. I built lame_enc.dll from source with Visual C++ 6.0. Decided to try today to upgrade to 1.3.14. Ugh.

lame_enc.dll 3.97 isn't compatible with Audacity 1.3.14. Fair enough. I download the newest LAME version (3.99.3). The build structure is now for VC9. I loaded it up in Visual C++ 2008 SP1 (don't try 2010, it won't build after you import it ). With LAME 3.97, there was only one project file. With LAME 3.99, there's a vc9_lame.sln and vc9_lame_clients.sln. Ugh. I built what I could from vc9_lame.sln, then went over to vc9_lame_client.sln, where lame_enc is. I built that, but it seems to link dynamically against libmp3lame.dll... ok, so I copied both that and lame_enc.dll into the Audacity directory, pointed Audacity at lame_enc.dll, and got the dreaded "You are linking to lame_enc.dll v3.99. This version is not compatible with Audacity 1.3.14. Please download the latest version of the LAME MP3 library."

I went ahead and downloaded part of the Audacity source where that message appears (currently http://audacity.googlecode.com/svn/auda ... ortMP3.cpp). It's looking for several exported symbols, including lame_init, get_lame_version, etc. Ran "dumpbin /exports" from VC 2008 on my lame_enc.dll and look, it only has a few symbols, including beVersion, but none of the lame_* functions. It turns out that libmp3lame.dll does have those functions. So on a whim, I tried renaming libmp3lame.dll to lame_enc.dll and dropped it into the Audacity directory. And it magically works.

The beVersion and beWriteInfoTag symbols are optional, thus I didn't need to build the real lame_enc.dll.

I looked at free-codecs lame_enc.dll. It has some of the lame_* symbols that Audacity looks for, but is missing many of them (like lame_set_quality, lame_set_VBR). I can see how the Audacity people might not want to support this.

The recommended pre-built one at lame1.buanzo.com.ar does seem to have everything, lame_* functions, be* functions. I'm guessing that there's other ways of building it that are better supported (maybe with mingw), but this gives you at least one alternative to the one and only pre-built ones.

Summary:
- Download LAME 3.99 source code, extract
- Open vc_solutionvc9_lame.sln in Visual C++ 2008 SP1
- Change from Debug to Release build
- Right-click libmp3lame and Build
- Assuming it was successful, grab it from outputReleaselibmp3lame.dll, rename to lame_enc.dll and drop into Audacity directory

Yes, the reason for requiring so many symbols was to try and limit complaints about missing tags/wrong length etc. in this and that player. As far as that goes, there are far fewer complaints than we used to get in early Betas.

There is a 3.99.3 for Windows installer here that has been up for testing for a while:
http://gaclrecords.org.uk/software/Lame ... indows.exe

Adding DllBladeMP3EncDLL.c and DllBladeMP3EncDLL.h to libmp3lame_dll.vcproj so that the BladeMP3 defines are included should add the other symbols. It's fine to rename libmp3lame.dll to lame_enc.dll.

In a similar way you "may" be able to find latest libmp3lame.dll files online as separate downloads and Audacity may well accept them (rename to lame_enc.dll isn't usually necessary as you long as you set the browse window in Libraries Preferences to look for all .dll's). Needless to say, this is not a supported recommendation.


Gale