Of all the digital audio formats, MP3 is still the most widespread and widely supported. Car stereos, DVD players, and any portable audio player worth its weight in gold can play MP3s. While the format may not have the best technical audio quality, it still sounds pristine at proper bitrates. LAME is by far the best MP3 encoder on the block.
LAME has been around for over 10 years and is the de facto MP3 encoder. Now, LAME is not a traditional "encoder" per se: the developers never focused their efforts on a slick GUI frontend, but the LAME codec is used in many encoders, free and commercial. When you download LAME, you'll usually want to grab the compiled .EXE and .DLL files (we've provided links below), not the source code.
Download latest version:
LAME v3.98.2
Alternate link
LAME v3.99.a1 alpha
| Homepage: | http://lame.sourceforge.net/ |
| Supported OS: |    |
| Portable version: |  (Depends on app used) |
| 64-bit version: | (Not widely available) |
| Active project: | |
| No strings attached **: | |
** No spyware, ads, nags, registration reminders, etc.
Other Audio Codec freeware to keep an eye on:
- FLAC (lossless)
- Monkey's Audio (lossless)
- Musepack (lossy)
- Ogg Vorbis (lossy)
