Originally posted by Amadeus93
I agree - a description of what the different dm-preset switches do would be great!

The --dm-preset switches are designed to provide the highest possible quality.

They have for the most part been subject to and tuned via rigorous double blind

listening tests to verify and achieve this objective.



These are continually updated to coincide with the latest developments that

occur and as a result should provide you with nearly the best quality

currently possible from LAME.



To activate these presets:



   For VBR modes (generally highest quality):



     "--dm-preset standard" This preset should generally be transparent

                            to most people on most music and is already

                            quite high in quality.

     "--dm-preset xtreme"   If you have extremely good hearing and similar

                            equipment, this preset will generally provide

                            slightly higher quality than the "standard"

                            mode. This mode will also provide much higher

                            quality on certain clips heavy on synthetic

                            impulse sounds, such as those in fatboy.wav.



   For CBR 320kbps (highest quality possible from the --dm-preset switches):



     "--dm-preset insane"   This preset will usually be overkill for most

                            people and most situations, but if you must

                            have the absolute highest quality with no

                            regard to filesize, this is the way to go.



   For ABR modes (high quality per given bitrate but not as high as VBR):



     "--dm-preset <kbps>"   Using this preset will usually give you good

                            quality at a specified bitrate. Depending on the

                            bitrate entered, this preset will determine the

                            optimal settings for that particular situation.

                            While this approach works, it is not nearly as

                            flexible as VBR, and usually will not attain the

                            same level of quality as VBR at higher bitrates.



The following options are also available for the corresponding profiles:



   <fast>        standard

   <fast>        xtreme

                 insane



   <cbr> (ABR Mode) - The ABR Mode is implied. To use it,

                      simply specify a bitrate. For example:n

                      "--dm-preset 185" activates this

                      preset and uses 185 as an average kbps.



   "fast" - Enables the new fast VBR for a particular profile. The

            disadvantage to the speed switch is that often times the

            bitrate will be slightly higher than with the normal mode

            and quality may be slightly lower also.



   "cbr"  - If you use the ABR mode (read above) with a significant

            bitrate such as 80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 320,

            you can use the "cbr" option to force CBR mode encoding

            instead of the standard abr mode. ABR does provide higher

            quality but CBR may be useful in situations such as when

            streaming an mp3 over the internet may be important.



    For example:



 "C:LAME_Alame.exe --dm-preset fast standard <input file> <output file>"

 or "C:LAME_Alame.exe --dm-preset cbr 192 <input file> <output file>"

 or "C:LAME_Alame.exe --dm-preset 172 <input file> <output file>"

 or "C:LAME_Alame.exe --dm-preset xtreme <input file> <output file>"