Here are other recommended tools for MP3 in OS/2 I tried before releasing
this version of pm123 or cd2mp3pm.

MP3 Encoders
============

I have tried five MP3 encoders by encoding CD quality WAVs (yes, even
Classical Music) in MP3s at 128kb/s in stereo (not joint stereo, when
possible) and tested them with some $40 headphones and pm123's spectrum
analyzer and equalizer.  I have benchmarked the speed of the different
encoders by comparing it with L3Enc 1.0 for OS/2's because probably all MP3
OS/2 users tried it at least once.

ToMPG 3.0 for Win32 (http://www.kiss.uni-lj.si/~k4fe0470/tompg.zip)
-------------------

This is a Win32 console EXE, but it converts NUMBER ONE with Win32-OS/2
Alpha 0.02!! (http://www.os2ss.com/win32-os2)

ToMPG is fast.  I mean astoundingly fast, light speed fast. WARNING!! it's
going to blow your socks off!!  It's seven (7) times faster (no joke) than
L3Enc 1.0 for OS/2 here.

Use the following options to enable 128kb/s and Stereo output though.  The
default values aren't terrific. -B64 -M0

The hearing test was good.  I didn't hear a difference between the original
WAV and the MP3, but the spectrum analyzer showed a cut off at around
16kHz.

Its downsampling filtering is BS though, so if you plan on encoding low
quality MP3 from high quality WAV, use something else, or downsample it
before using ToMPG.

ToMPG also supports MPEG 2 Layer III (lower sampling rate MP3s).

This program presumably looks free.  I see it on many unofficial sites,
that means excluding Xing's, and it never comes with any license or
shareware restrictions.  It seems to be the predecessor of the commercial
Win32 GUI Xing encoder (http://www.xingtech.com).


8hz's MP3 Encoder 0.2 (http://www.8hz.com)
---------------------

This is a free MP3 encoder based on the public ISO MPEG code (the famous
dist10.tar.gz).  Eventhough it is at least 3 times slower than L3Enc 1.0
for OS/2, the source codes are available for free!!  It is beta at the
moment, it might not always work properly.

The hearing test was good.  I didn't hear a difference between the original
WAV and the MP3, although it attenuates any frequency over 16kHz upto 20kHz
where it cuts off.

8Hz-mp3 0.2 does not support MPEG 2 Layer III (lower sampling rate MP3s).


L3Enc 2.72 for DOS  (ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/sac/sound/l3v272d1.zip)
------------------

This one is about 2 times slower than L3Enc for OS/2 without -hq.  With it,
you're better off running it over night, but I haven't figured out what it
actually does (is it just eating CPU cycles for the fun of it or what?).
Sadly, this is the last (and obsolete) official version.  It doesn't even
appear on Fraunhoffer site!!

It encodes only in Joint Stereo, but the hearing test was good and the
spectrum analyzer shows a cut off at 20kHz.  So if you are sensitive to
high frequencies, use this encoder.

Note, since this is a DOS program, it only supports 8.3 style filenames.

L3Enc 2.72 for DOS supports MPEG 2 Layer III (lower sampling rate MP3s).

It requires a registration for encoding over 112kb/s.


L3Enc 1.0 for OS/2  (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/mmedia/sound/convert/l3en4os2.zip)
------------------

This is actually the well known L3Enc from Fraunhofer-IIS version 1.0.  It
looks like they used EMX to compile this version of L3Enc for DOS, and it
had the side effect to make it also run in OS/2.  Somebody, somewhere, had
that old copy and made it reappear in public.  The new versions of L3Enc
now use DJGPP and that doesn't make any OS/2 binaries.  Send shit to
Fraunhofer-IIS!!

It's reasonably fast, but it hogs the CPU. You should get SPE
(http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/system/spe.zip) to reduce its priority
to idle 0 if you want to do something else when it's encoding.

It encodes in Joint Stereo only and the hearing test was bad, even if it
only cuts any frequencies over 16kHz.  The sound seems centered, probably
that the Joint Stereo is too wide.

The -wav parameter doesn't work properly, so you need to feed it RAW files
or you'll hear a pop at the beginning of your MP3s.

L3Enc 1.0 for OS/2 does not support MPEG 2 Layer III (lower sampling rate MP3s).


MP3Enc 3.0 for Win32 (http://www.iis.fhg.de/amm/download/mp3enc/)
--------------------

This is a new face of L3Enc.  A Win32 EXE is available, but no DOS EXE.
It also converts fine with Win32-OS/2.  Nonetheless, I was very disapointed
by its performance.

By default, it cuts off all frequencies over 11kHz. This makes the sound
very muffled.  So I tried to use -bw 22050 (to set the frequency bandwidth
we want) and it still only goes up to 16kHz.  The resulting MP3s also have
small "drop outs" and chops in sound not found in the original WAV. Against
all expectation, the highest quality (which is the default) seems to make
them worse while making the encoding process very very very slow. In
addition, we can only use Joint Stereo.

At lowest quality, it's about the same speed as L3Enc 1.0 for OS/2.

This encoder has some nice features like allowing pipes to be used instead
of files (this can be useful for realtime encoding and transfer), and some
other not so nice features like -l3wav which deliberately sticks a RIFF wav
header at the beginning the MP3 file.

I don't know what happened in Fraunhofer labs, maybe a visit from
Microsoft?

You should get SP to reduce its priority as it hogs the CPU.
(http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/system/sp103.zip)

MP3Enc 3.0 for Win32 supports MPEG 2 Layer III (lower sampling rate MP3s).

This requires a registration for more than 30 seconds of MP3 encoding.

os2enc01.zip
------------

I didn't get it to work at all.  Gives garbage.

AMPEG 4.3 (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/mmedia/sound/convert/ampeg43.zip)
---------

Good free package with source codes available to encode mp2 files, but they
need to be a bit larger (192kb/s instead of 128kb/s) than mp3 to achieve
the same quality.  I can hear the difference with my headphones.

Conclusion
----------

- Speed and good quality   -> ToMPG 3.0
- Low sampling frequencies -> ToMPG 3.0
- Very low sampling
  frequencies (MPEG 2.5)   -> L3Enc 2.72 for DOS
- Absolute highest quality -> L3Enc 2.72 for DOS
- Downsampling             -> L3Enc 2.72 for DOS
- Geek source code         -> 8hz-MP3 and AMPEG 4.3
- Low CPU decoding usage   -> MP2 (Layer II) with ToMPG or AMPEG 4.3


Decoders
========

mpg123 for OS/2 0.20 (http://www.cam.org/~guardia/archives/mpg123_020.zip)
--------------------

This is my port of mpg123 (which I used to make mpg123.dll).  I included a
WAV routine to output files with a RIFF WAVE header.  So basically,
anything that pm123 or mpg123 can play can be dumped to WAV files that can
then be used for editing, CD burning or reencoding with ToMPG.


CD-DA utilities
===============

Leech 1.20 (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/mmedia/sound/editors/leech120.zip)
----------

This is a CD grabber with dijittering capabilities. There is a very good
reason that you want to prevent any jittering.  Not only does it insert
clicks in your PCM sample, it can also switch the left and right channel!!

With my old Goldstar CD-ROM drive, I got loads of "jitter correction
failed" even though Alfons, for example, has no problem reading it.  Must
be that it didn't like to jump all over the place to correct jittering.  My
new Panasonic CD-ROM drive do 0 jitter all the way, now that's neat.
Anyway, if your CD-ROM drive hates CD-DA, try to use -s10 and -j100.  It
might be slow, but at least you get everything.

Make sure you use the options to dump the audio track into a RAW file if
you intend to encode it with L3Enc.  If you don't do so, L3Enc will encode
the WAV header (it doesn't recognize it), and you will get a click at the
beginning of your MP3 files.

Alfons 0.99b (http://www.algonet.se/~mikkje/files/alf099b.zip)
-----------

This is the best CD-DA utility after Leech.  It's very easy to use, and
because Leech can take quite a while reading a track, I use Alfons for
"quick and dirty" grabs.


Front Ends
==========

MP3 PM 0.55 (http://www.kiss.uni-lj.si/~k4fe0470/mp3pm055.zip)
-----------

Looks like a promising control interface, but at the moment it only
supports Leech and the defunct L3Enc 1.0.  Nice GUI though.

CD2MP3 PM 0.90 (http://www.cam.org/~guardia/archives/cd2mp3pm_090.zip)
--------------

This is a very nice (ah, I can't help being biased) utility that I also
programmed that can use any Encoder and Grabber that can run in
non-interactive mode using a simple configuration file.  It reportably
works very well, try it out!

Samuel Audet <guardia@cam.org>
