I wanted to know if the LAME dev's are ever planning on allowing bitrates higher than 320 using VBR & the preset system, this could allow improvement of some problem samples.
[span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%']Edit: freeformat is not possible with VBR?[/span]
No, freeformat is not possible with VBR.
I don't really see the point of freeformat anyway - only MAD can decode > 320kbps IIRC - it's like all the downsides of mp3 (not free, not that great performance compared to newer codecs, only 2 channel support, etc) + the fact that it's very incompatible. I'm not generally a vorbis supporter, but I can't think of a situation where mp3 > 320kbps would be suitable where vorbis wouldn't (and do a better job).
only MAD can decode > 320kbps IIRC[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a] (http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=226474")
According to [a href="http://lame.sourceforge.net/USAGE]http://lame.sourceforge.net/USAGE[/url]:
Decoders which can handle free format:
supports up to
MAD 640 kbps
"lame --decode" 550 kbps
Freeamp: 440 kbps
l3dec: 310 kbps
Freeformat is a real dog to use, slow encoding /decoding, couldn't play it on anything, transcoding is primitive and has to be done in 2 steps
I think that the hybrids like wavpack and optimfrog dualstream would perform better at 300kbps + bitrates and they already have better software support not to mention the cool correction file feature. They also transcode fast & perfect into other lossy formats. 'Lossless' at half price it seems.