

This does not provide as consistently high a quality as variable bit rate, but is generally preferable to constant bit rate if you need to know more or less how large your files will be it offers bit rates from 8 kbps to 320 kbps.

Level 0 is comparable to the Extreme preset mentioned above, level 2 is comparable to Standard and level 4 to Medium presets. For a mono track, the achieved bit rate for each setting will usually be below the range indicated above. Each setting defines a range of bit rates within which it will generally operate, assuming a stereo track. The settings range from 0 (highest quality) to 9 (smallest file size).

Many apps still do not support this feature, and will therefore show a small amount of added silence at the beginning of the file. Applications that support this tag, (including Audacity), are then able to automatically strip off the added silence. Audacity uses LAME Mp3 info tag to store the exact length of added silence. Note that MP3 files have a short silence at the beginning due to encoder delay. Encoding speed can be specified, and Joint Stereo encoding chosen as an option.Īs with all lossy, compressed formats, there is a trade-off between the size of the file and the quality of the encoded file, higher quality requiring larger files. You can choose between variable, average or constant bit rate, or from one of four common presets. MP3 Export Options let you choose the quality of files exported to the popular MP3 format.
