Place Holder

How To Encode MP3s For Maximum Playability

We Wrote the book on Indie bands... Literally - Order your Book here.

Result

Make MP3s out of your own music that will be playable by any fan.

Overview

When you, as a musician, are posting MP3s, don't just take the default settings. Change them to make it have the maximum playability by potential fans, and are a reasonable size so that they download quickly.

Note: If you plan on selling MP3s, or making MP3s for your own collection, you will use higher quality settings.

Related Categories: MP3 Tools

Estimated Preparation time: 10 minutes per song

Estimated Result Time: Immediate

Estimated Cost: FREE

What You Need to Do This:

  • Songs that you want to change to an MP3 format in either WAV, or CD form
  • An MP3 Encoder
  • An MP3 player or tagger to set the ID3 tags

Directions

Following are the instructions for Windows desktops.

1. Install the free tool Audiograbber (Windows)

2. Install the free Windows binary version of LAME encoder

Make sure to change the default settings to unzip the files for the LAME encoder into the same directory as Audiograbber, which is by default C:\audiograbber.

3. Configure Audiograbber using these instructions

a. Run the program. b. Press the MP3 button. c. Make sure Internal Encoder is chosen, with LameEnc as the selection. d. Use the following settings on this page:

  • Grab to: MP3 file via intermediate WAV file. Keep the WAV file.
  • Leave unchecked "Use ID3v1 Tag", "Append ID3 info to WAV File", and "Rip all tracks before encoding".
  • Enable the Internal Encoder tab.
  • Choose the LameEnc DLL.
  • Choose Constant Bitrate, and set the slidebar to 128.
  • In the Quality box, select Joint Stereo and Normal.
  • In the Bitstream flags click Original.
  • In the Encoder priority, choose Normal

Click OK when all these options are set.

4. Begin Converting

Once all the settings are changed, drag the WAV files from a file window into the Audiograbber program. Audiograbber will start converting them into MP3s at your chosen settings.

What should I do next?

References

 

© 2010 IndieBandSurvivalGuide.com, LLC