LAME Audio Encoder 3.97 - Product details
Audio encoder for mp3 files, built for Mac OS X
Free! Click here to download. Runs in Mac OS X 10.3.9 and higher.
LAME is an open source audio encoder. It is NOT developed by Thalictrum. We give you a pre-packaged installer for Mac OS X as a convenience. All necessary information, license and source code can be freely obtained from the official lame site, or from http://lame.sourceforge.net/.
This version is a Universal Binary, meaning it will run at native speeds on both PowerPC and Intel Mac OS X machines. The PowerPC code has been optimized for G4 and G5. Have fun!
I wil not support the LameLib used by Audacity. You can obtain that from http://spaghetticode.org/lame/, as indicated on their website.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the encoder exactly?
The encoder is not a graphical application that you can double-click, but a command-line tool, usable from the Terminal application (which lives in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder) or other graphical applications.
How do you use it?
You can use it directly from the Terminal, by invoking the lame tool. See its man page for options and syntax, or, after installation, you can read the documentation for the lame tool by pointing your browser to file:///usr/local/share/doc/lame/html/index.html
It can also be used by other applications. There are normal, double-clickable applications that use LAME to convert audio files to mp3. An example is BarbaBatch by Audio Ease. There are probably other examples as well. (Please let me know, I can mention them here!)
What gets installed where?
The lame encoder and its accompanying files go into some directories that are normally not visible in the Finder. The following files are installed:
/usr/local/bin/lame /usr/local/include/lame.h /usr/local/lib/libmp3lame.0.0.0.dylib /usr/local/lib/libmp3lame.0.dylib /usr/local/lib/libmp3lame.a /usr/local/lib/libmp3lame.dylib /usr/local/man/man1/lame.1 /usr/local/share/doc/lame/html/basic.html /usr/local/share/doc/lame/html/contributors.html /usr/local/share/doc/lame/html/examples.html /usr/local/share/doc/lame/html/history.html /usr/local/share/doc/lame/html/id3.html /usr/local/share/doc/lame/html/index.html /usr/local/share/doc/lame/html/lame.css /usr/local/share/doc/lame/html/modes.html /usr/local/share/doc/lame/html/node6.html /usr/local/share/doc/lame/html/presets.html /usr/local/share/doc/lame/html/switchs.html
New here is the addition of the include directory, containing a C header file. This is for programmers who want to use the lame libraries directly in their products. Please refer to the official lame site and documentation, if you want to do this.
How can I uninstall LAME?
To uninstall, use the uninstaller, which is a separate download.