Lame Front-End

Audio files are pretty popular, and the MP3 format is one which works with mostly anything. To help you out, Lame Front-End represents a graphical interface for LAME, the well-known MP3 encoder and decoder. It can be easily worked with.

The interface of the application is clean and intuitive. Adding files to the list can be done with the help of either the file browser or 'drag and drop' functionality. Handling multiple items simultaneously is possible. They are enlisted in a large section along with format, name, and source.

Once you specify the output directory, you can proceed with the encoding/decoding procedure, by using the default settings, but it’s also possible to take matters into your own hands with advanced configurations.

Skilled users can tinker with the audio options in regard to the encoding algorithm quality, bit rate, quality and channel mode, among others. The application can be used to encode, re-encode, and even to decode files.

You can make Lame Front-End automatically exit when all tasks are done. Other features of the app let you modify ID3v2 tags. From the 'Options' tab you can specify the LAME.EXE location, integrate the app into the Explorer context menu, as well as delete all Windows Registry keys created by the program. Settings can be saved to file or restored to their default values.

Lame Front-End supports multiple languages for the interface, has a good response time and quickly finishes a task while using a low amount of CPU and system memory. No error dialogs have occurred during our evaluation and Lame Front-End did not freeze or crash. The output tracks have a good audio quality. Thanks to the simple and expert modes, Lame Front-End can be handled by both first-time and advanced users.