Harp40_1
This old reference sample produces the worst LAME artifact I have ever heard at -b 128. The first two notes are totally destroyed. In Ivan's Nero AAC test I found the 48 kbps AAC encodings much better.
The problem is still clearly audible at - b 160 and -V3 --vbr-new.
LAME 3.97b2 @ -b 160
foo_abx v1.2 report
foobar2000 v0.8.3
2006/02/06 09:08:26
File A: file://E:\test\LAME problem\harp40_1\harp40_1.wav
File B: file://E:\test\LAME problem\harp40_1\harp40_1.mp3
09:08:28 : Test started.
09:09:25 : 01/01 50.0%
09:10:43 : 02/02 25.0%
09:11:06 : 03/03 12.5%
09:11:14 : 04/04 6.3%
09:11:38 : 05/05 3.1%
09:11:46 : 06/06 1.6%
09:12:12 : 07/07 0.8%
09:12:31 : 08/08 0.4%
09:12:39 : 09/09 0.2%
09:12:50 : 10/10 0.1%
09:12:58 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 10/10 (0.1%)
LAME 3.97b @ -V3 --vbr-new
foo_abx v1.2 report
foobar2000 v0.8.3
2006/02/06 09:25:25
File A: file://E:\test\LAME problem\harp40_1\harp40_1.wav
File B: file://E:\test\LAME problem\harp40_1\harp40_1.mp3
09:25:27 : Test started.
09:25:35 : 01/01 50.0%
09:25:40 : 02/02 25.0%
09:25:56 : 03/03 12.5%
09:26:01 : 04/04 6.3%
09:26:05 : 05/05 3.1%
09:26:23 : 06/06 1.6%
09:26:31 : 07/07 0.8%
09:26:38 : 08/08 0.4%
09:26:54 : 09/09 0.2%
09:27:03 : 10/10 0.1%
09:27:04 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 10/10 (0.1%)
The sample is available for example here: ftp://ftp.tnt.uni-hannover.de/pub/MPEG/au...am/harp40_1.wav