MP3 Encoder Icon

MP3 Encoder's Main Window:

 

Main Window Image

 

Toolbar Buttons


Encode Icon Encode
Click this button to start the encoding process. When the encoding process starts, this button will change to “Cancel”. Click and hold this button to reveal a popup menu which gives the option to write metadata back to MP3 source files.


Cancel Icon Cancel
When encoding files or adding files to the queue, the Encode button turns into a Cancel button. Clicking it will stop the encoding process or stop files from being added to the queue. Files that are currently being encoded will stop and the partially encoded file will be deleted. Files that have not yet finished encoding will remain in the queue.

 

Write Metadata Icon Write Metadata
Click and hold the Encode button to reveal the Write Metadata button, or, add this button to the toolbar by option-clicking on the toolbar and choosing 'Customize Toolbar...'. Pressing this button will write the metadata back to the original file allowing Pro Audio Converter to function as a basic tag editor. Click the Metadata button to reveal the metadata editor.


Metadata Icon Metadata
This brings up the Metadata Editor.


Info IconFile Info
This brings up the File Info Window.


Add Files Icon Add Files
This will bring up an Open Files dialog allowing you to add files or folders to the queue. See the section on adding and removing files for more details.


Remove Files Icon Remove Files
This will remove selected files from the queue. See the section on adding and removing files for more details.


Delete Original Icon
When checked, this will move the original file to the trash once the encoding is complete. If you are only updating metadata for the source files, the original file will not be deleted.


Output Location Toolbar Item
The output directory toolbar item allows you to select your output directory from the main window.

 

 

File List

File List

In the center, you will see a list of all the files that will be encoded to MP3. Each file is accompanied by a progress bar that shows the progress of the encoding process.

 

 

 

Pulldown Menus

Pulldown Meus

Bitrate Mode
Constant Bitrate (CBR) - This is the default encoding mode, and also the most basic. In this mode, the bitrate will be the same for the whole file. It means that each part of your mp3 file will be using the same number of bits. Whether the musical passage is a difficult one to encode or an easy one, the encoder will use the same bitrate, so the quality of your mp3 is variable. Complex parts will be of a lower quality than the easiest ones. The main advantage is that the final files size won't change and can be accurately predicted.

Variable Bit Rate (VBR) – In this mode, you choose the desired quality on a scale going from 1 (lowest quality/highest distortion) to 10 (highest quality/lowest distortion). The encoder tries to maintain the given quality in the whole file by choosing the optimal number of bits to spend for each part of your music. The main advantage is that you are able to specify the quality level that you want to reach, but the inconvenient is that the final file size is totally unpredictable.

Average Bit Rate (ABR) – In this mode, you choose a target bitrate and the encoder will try to constantly maintain an average bitrate while using higher bitrates for the parts of your music that need more bits. The result will be of higher quality than CBR encoding while the average file size will remain predictable, so this mode is highly recommended over CBR.

 

Bitrate
When used with CBR, it is the constant bitrate to use. Higher bitrates result in higher quality audio, but larger file sizes. When used with ABR, it is the average bitrate to be used, allowing for frames of different sizes.

 

VBR Quality
Specifies the value of VBR quality. VBR quality ranges on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the lowest quality and 10 being the highest. On typical music you can expect a VBR Quality of 5 to result in files averaging 132kbps, 8 averaging 200kbps.

 

Quality
This specifies the quality of the encoder algorithm. Bitrate is of course the main influence on quality, but for any given bitrate we have a choice of algorithms to determine the best scalefactors and huffman encoding (noise shaping).

 

Stereo Mode
Auto - Stereo or Joint Stereo (mid/side stereo) will be chosen on a frame-by-frame basis for stereo source files. In mid/side stereo, the mid (L+R) and side (L-R) channels are encoded, and more bits are allocated to the mid channel than the side channel. This will effectively increase the bandwidth for frames that do not have too much stereo separation, resulting in an overall higher quality file. Mono will be chosen for mono source files. This setting is recommended for the highest quality.

 

Sample Rate
MP3 Encoder will automatically choose the best sample rate for the job. If you have a special reason and need a specific MP3 sample rate, you can choose from any of the sample rates that the MP3 specification allows for.