LameXP 4.0 Tech Preview Released
Music, just like video, can come in many different formats on the computer. Mp3 is without doubt the most popular file type for music but there are dozens of other file types that may also be on the computer.
Multiple file types is usually not a problem on the computer itself as software music players are capable of playing all of the popular music files. Problems usually arise when music needs to be transferred on media devices such as mp3 players.
Music converters are used to convert music from one format into a different format.
A first tech preview of the popular music converter LameXP 4.0 has been released a few days ago. LameXP is basically a frontend for the mp3 encoder Lame with support for additional decoders.
The tech preview has been released as a time limited demo which means that it will only work for 14 days. The developer plans to release a new version in that timeframe that users can update to.
Not all planned features are integrated in the tech preview as well. It is possible to load audio files into the interface with the built-in file browser or drag and drop. LameXP 4.0 supports a wide variety of file types from mp3 and wave over flac and ogg/vorbis to wma, mp4 and aac.
The endocder, quality settings, meta data and output directory are all defined in the program options. Supported are currently conversions to mp3, ogg vorbis, nero AAC (if installed), FLAC and Wave.
Meta Data can be added manually which will supersede meta data that is already existing in the files. A click on the Encode Now button starts the encoding. Encoded files are saved in the selected output directory. LameXP creates a playlist file automatically with an option to disable the creation in the meta data preferences.
Users who are interested in the tech preview of LameXP 4.0 find the official release thread at the Doom9 forum.
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LameXP v4.xx has long gone final. Version 4.02 has just been released:
http://lamexp.sourceforge.net/.
See the Changelog for more detailed information:
http://lamexp.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=lamexp/lamexp;a=blob_plain;f=doc/Changelog.html;hb=HEAD
And don’t miss the FAQ document:
http://lamexp.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=lamexp/lamexp;a=blob_plain;f=doc/FAQ.html;hb=HEAD
LameXP is nice, but I’ve been more impressed with Fre:ac http://www.freac.org/ (formerly BonkEnc which you covered back in 2009), which is out for every Windows version as well as Wine, supports more formats, has more fine-grained control of audio quality settings, and is actively developed. I’ve interacted with the developer, who is very much still involved (as evidenced by the changelog up on softpedia: http://www.softpedia.com/progChangelog/BonkEnc-Changelog-3251.html)