Mark Taylor then started pursuing increased quality in addition to better speed, and released version 3.0 featuring gpsycho, a new psychoacoustic model he developed. A few key improvements since LAME 3.x, in chronological order: May 1999 (LAME 3.0): a new psychoacoustic model (GPSYCHO) is released. June 1999 (LAME 3.11): The first variable bitrate (VBR) implementation is released. Soon after this, LAME also became able to target lower sampling frequencies from MPEG-2. (LAME 3.99 also supports the technologically simpler average bitrate (ABR), but it is unclear whether it was added before or with VBR.) November 1999 (LAME 3.52): LAME switches from a GPL license to an LGPL license, which allows using it with closed-source applications. May 2000 (LAME 3.81): the last pieces of the original ISO demonstration code are removed. LAME is not a patch anymore, but a full encoder. December 2003 (LAME 3.94): substantial improvement to default settings, along with improved speed. LAME no longer requires users to enter complicated parameters to produce good results. May 2007 (LAME 3.98): default variable bitrate encoding speed is vastly improved.
Mark Taylor then started pursuing increased quality in addition to better speed, and released version 3.0 featuring gpsycho, a new psychoacoustic model he developed. A f.ew key improvements since LAME 3.x, in chronological order: May 1999 (LAME 3.0): a new psychoacoustic model (GPSYCHO) is released. June 1999 (LAME 3.11): The first variable bitrate (VBR) implementation is released. Soon after this, LAME also became able to target lower sampling frequencies from MPEG-2. (LAME 3.99 also supports the technologically simpler average bitrate (ABR), but it is unclear whether it was added before or with VBR.) November 1999 (LAME 352): LAME switches from a GPL license to an LGPL license, which allows using it with closed-source applications. May 2000 (LAME 381): the last pieces of the original ISO demonstration code are removed. LAME is not a patch anymore, but a fu.ll encoder. December 2003 (LAME 3.94): substantial improvement to default settings, along with improved speed. LAME no longer requires users to enter complicated parameters to produce good results. May 2007 (LAME 3.98): default variable bitrate encoding speed is vastly improved.