Razor Lame - For reducing the size of your file – the original and still the best.

Razor Lame Tutorial

RazorLame is a so-called “front-end” for use with LAME. LAME is a great MP3-Encoder: it’s very fast, it produces high-quality files, has many advanced features (like Variable Bitrates and Joint-Stereo), and it’s open source. Unfortunately, it is a command line utility, and that is where RazorLame comes in: It provides an easy-to-use graphical user-interface which makes MP3-encoding even easier!

IMPORTANT: Do not use Variable Bit Rate with MSI Web Jukebox.

Why do we use Razor Lame: Most of the mp3 files you will be using are still quite large so by using Razorlame we can reduce the size considerably increasing the audience for your Jukebox. For high quality you would not have to reduce the file size at all and most cable users will be able to listen to clear quality stereo files with no problems. Lower bandwidth users however will find it keeps cutting in ands out depending on their connection.

Also you will be using up a lot of bandwidth if you have large MP3 files so it is a good idea to cut them down if this is a consideration. So you can test the difference I have made five variations of the same file so you can judge the difference for yourself.

Organization: The important thing when doing audio is get organized. Copy all your files that you want to use in one folder called say  audio. Create a new folder in your MSI Jukebox program folder called my project. You can batch process the files with Razorlame but it will require you to save them into this other folder. Then when you use MSI Jukebox you have all the files in one place. Once they are processed and copied into the output you can delete the folders to free up space.

So here is a excerpt that was free on Amazon and is from the Lord of the Rings.

Watch me on the video

The Main-Window
	The first step when using RazorLame is to add some files. You can use the “Add” button, press Ctrl-O, use the menu, or simply drop some files onto the listview. If you drop a folder, audio files be added recursively for that folder. You can sort the list by clicking on the header buttons, just as you would do in Explorer. Also, you can change the encoding order through drag and drop.
The Options-Dialog
	This is the options dialog of RazorLame. Normally, you won’t have to set many things here. The most important item is of course the location of the LAME executable, so it’s probably a good idea to check if you’ve got it right.
The LAME Options-Dialog
	In this dialog you’ll find almost all the options LAME has to offer. Simply choose whatever you want, and you’re ready to start encoding. If you ever want to encode using an option RazorLame doesn’t support through it’s interface, just add it in the field “custom options” on the “Expert” page. You can also load some presets, or save the settings you use often.
The Progress-Dialog
	Here you can see what LAME is currently doing, and how long it thinks it will take. When you press the “Send to tray” button, RazorLame will minimize to the system tray. When you check the “Shutdown windows when done” option, RazorLame will try to shutdown windows when the batch is through. Before that, it’ll countdown for 30 seconds, so in case you’ve changed your mind, you still can prevent it.
The Histogram
	When you’re doing ABR or VBR encodings, you can choose to display a histogram to watch how the bitrates of the currently encoded song are chosen. Also, if you choose to do joint-stereo, you can see how many LR or MS frames are used. If you don’t know exactly what this all means, never mind, but it sure looks cool, don’t you think?

Sincerely,

Quentin Brown

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