Encoder

The first line in the encoder displays the name, version, and date of the encoder currently used. The encoder is loaded when the program starts. The program looks for a file called lame_enc.dll searching first in the current directory, then in the directory, where the program itself resides, and finally in the default windows directories C:\windows and C:\windows\sys. The first encoder found is loaded and its version and date are displayed.

Next comes an indication of the encoder mode.Currently this is either Stereo or Joint Stereo. Joint Stereo saves some bits, if the two channels are quite similar, as it is the case for example for speech. This setting is not used if the input of the encoder is a mono signal.

The bitrate in the next line is the selected target bitrate for the encoder. The true bitrate, shown next, is the measured bitrate, that is the number of bits observed as encoder output per second of playing time.

The last two lines just show the number of bytes counted at the input and at the output of the encoder. These numbers can be used to detect a loss somewhere along the signal path or to compute the compression rate.