Does anyone know how to install the latest verison of LAME so it will work with Winamp. I know the LAME download comes with a dll, but I don't know how to get Winamp to use it. Any help would be appreciated.
In the "Plugins" folder, there is already a copy of lame_enc.dll. Just replace it with the newest version.
I have a problem installing the lame encoder in winamp 5. I copied the lame_enc.dll file to the plugin folder in Winamp (it was already there; I had copied it previously.) However, when I try to specify the encoder (under options>preferences>Ripping>encoder)the lame encoder does not appear in the list, or in any other list of plugins in Winamp. Other encoder appear, but not the Lame. Is there any other file that needs to be copied besides the dll file, or must the lame_enc.dll file need to be renamed? I note the other encoder files start with in_XXX.dll. What am I doing wrong? Thanks
I bought WinAmp 'pro' and my MP3 ripping option is only the Thomson licensed encoder. I don't think you can use LAME for ripping. However, there is an Output Plug-in that uses LAME, probably for trans-coding to MP3.
Thanks oleteddy, I tried the lame output plugin in Winamp 5.35 and it works as expected. However, it raises a question. I thought mp3 is a lossy compression protocol, so that every time one alters and resaves a mp3 file, there is more loss. The lame output plugin starts with a mp3 file and produces another (in my case, at least). What is the advantage is that? There must be more to the story. How do I rip a music CD to get lame-encoded mp3 files without going thru 2 encoding steps? Thanks again.
On my copy of winamp (now 5.5, buit I had 5.35 for a while), one can rip CDs directly to mp3's. Look at the encoder tab on ripping otpions. There should be something like "MP3 Encoder 1.34". You can chose VBR/CBR, what bitrates, etc.
The MP3 output plug-in can be used to transcode WMA or AAC or other (unprotected) formats to MP3. You can probably use it to record streaming audio too. I tried it with some DRM protected WMAs and it wouldn't record, however. AFAIK you can't use LAME to rip with WinAmp. I use CDEx to rip most of the time. It's free and pretty reliable, and uses LAME.