Come to think of it, I should probably try out the Angel Falls guitar picking problem sample this fixes with another encoder like Helix (using the VBR -X2 -U2 -V60 setting from the 128kbps MP3 listening test where Helix tied with LAME) just to see if it has the same issue. No time tonight, but maybe another time. I did hear the same problem in the 0.9 to 1.9 second range of the Angels Fall problem sample in the Helix VBR encode as well (which was actually 126 kbps). In a day or two, I might try ABXing this using the main (constrained VBR) or experimental (purer VBR) OPUS encoders too (around 48, 64, 80, 96 kbps are worth a try at first because it's more bit-rate efficient than MP3 so 64-80 is likely to be the good for everyday use range (-V5 ish for LAME) and 96-128 is probably in the -V4 to -V2 (high to very high quality) sort of range on early impressions and results of some formal tests in the public domain). I suspect that the option of long/short block selection per frequency band that's in the opus toolbox, could prove very useful in meeting the conflicting demands of simultaneous tonal and transient signals without enormous momentary bitrate, though the detection / decision might or might not be implemented to deal with it ideally, as this sort of sample is probably still a relatively rare problem sample that might not have been tuned for at this relatively early stage. If I do test opus I'll probably post in the thread for this problem sample and link it to the relevant Opus thread. If anything interesing comes up that could be relevant to tuning lame3.99.5y further I'll post a link here also.