using LAME with Logic

In the past I've just used Logic to bounce my Logic projects to mp3, but recently I've been told LAME is a bit better. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how it works. I'm not even sure if the version I downloaded is correct, since there seem to be so many versions available. I downloaded something called iTunes-LAME. Can somebody talk me through the process of taking a finished logic project and creating an mp3 with LAME?

 

Thanks,

Drew

I don't understand what you think is better about it to go through all the trouble.

 

Logic allows for Mp3 bounces at very high rates of kbps, which will allow for you to maintain the quality of the performance.

 

But, what I've done in the past, is bounce it as an uncompressed file, and later import it into Audacity (free download) which does not come with LAME (another free download). I've only done this when I didn't have a DAW that would export as an Mp3 (or at least not without nickel and dime-ing me for it, hello, Pro Tools!) and can't imagine that I would need to do it now. An Mp3 is an inherently inferior choice, you can try to make it better, but... Logic will do that just fine.

 

But, if you want to, get Audacity, and it will point you in the direction of the LAME encoder. And once you show Audacity where LAME is downloaded to, it won't forget it, and you'll be able to use it just fine. I don't think Logic will work with LAME, since it exports as Mp3 I don't think that was considered necessary.

Login only works with the quicktime codec. If you want to use another codec you'll need to bounce/export as wav/aif and import into a third-party program as stated above

Alright, I've downloaded Audacity, and now I'm trying to get LAME.

 

I downloaded the file

 

libmp3lame-osx-universal-3.97.zip

 

from

 

http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/

 

as instructed by

 

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3

 

BUT, when I drop the file libmp3lame.dylib in Stuffit, it says

 

Unable to determine file format. The file "/Users/Drew/Desktop/libmp3lame-osx-universal-3.97/package/usr/local/lib/libmp3lame.dylib" does not appear to be compressed or encoded. It is advised that you obtain further information about the contents of this file from the sender or provider of the file.

 

Anyone know why it's not working?

 

Thanks,

Drew

Didn't work for me, either. No idea. Keep looking, I'm sure you'll find something... but seriously, you won't notice any kind of difference with a LAME encoded Mp3 or a Logic encoded one. Try a higher bit level, 256 or even higher, they are considered to be almost CD quality. I wouldn't waste a whole lot of time on this just to get a better sounding Mp3, if it even is better sounding.

A dylib is a dynamic library ready to run it is not compressed. Here are some instructions I have found on the Audacity site:

"Once you have unzipped the archive, you will have a file called LameLib or libmp3lame.dylib. To use it with Audacity, you can put it anywhere you want, but the first time you want to export an MP3 file, Audacity will ask you for the location of this file, so you'll want to remember where you put it."

Hope this helps!

Get Max.

 

http://sbooth.org/Max/

 

Bounce your files to AIFF/WAV in Logic and encode them with Max. Max can do LAME MP3, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, Monkey's Audio - just about anything you need. Current version, 0.8, uses LAME 3.97 for MP3 encoding.

 

I've heard some praise LAME for being the best MP3 encoder while others say they don't like it. So whether you decide to stick to LAME is something you need to decide for yourself.

 

For me, I either do some AAC encode or Apple Lossless for Bouncing works in progress.