Phil Gyford

A couple of years back I wrote about how to encode MP3s using the LAME encoder, which is (or can be) superior to iTunes’ built-in option. This all got rather simpler last year with a newer version of the iTunes-LAME Encoder software.

So, to continue the yearly updates, I wanted to point out that it’s possible to easily use the same handy, shiny software interface with a more up-to-date version of LAME than the one it has built in. One option is to compile a newer version of LAME yourself, but that sounds like way too much command line trouble if you ask me. But a post in this thread suggests that you can simply:

• Grab the latest compiled version of LAME for Mac OS X from this page at RareWares.
• Control-click on your copy of the iTunes-LAME Encoder application and select ‘Show Package Contents’.
• Replace the now revealed ‘lame’ file within the application with the one you downloaded from RareWares.

Easy peasy. I can’t tell the difference at all of course, but the folk on Hydrogenaudio’s forums can probably suggest plenty of reasons why a 0.01 version upgrade will make all the difference, should you require justification.