Mp3 encoding

Hi,

LAME as an implementation is open source but unfortunately the technology necessary for mp3 encoding (and decoding), regardless of the implementation, is covered by software patents. In some jurisdictions that causes legal issues for using mp3 encoders (and even decoders) without paying a license fee to the patent holders.

This is unfortunate, and while LAME is available for installing to Ubuntu, you'll need to install it yourself if you want to use mp3 encoding and if those legal concerns do not apply to you. If you need help doing that, please ask.

Can't you have your application behave like Audacity, where if Lame is installed on the system it will allow these user to encode to mp3.
As you have mentioned those patents only cover certain countries.

First off, I'm not a representative of Canonical or the Ubuntu project, so I can't comment on specific rationale for shipping or not shipping particular software by default. However, Canonical does provide commercial support for the "main" section of Ubuntu packages, including everything included in the default install, and my understanding is that as such inclusion of patent-encumbered software might be legally problematic for them in countries in which they operate or in which they sell their services.

Secondly, the Audio Recorder application provided with a default Ubuntu desktop installation uses the GStreamer multimedia framework for audio encoding and decoding support, and GStreamer does support mp3 encoding if the GStreamer LAME plugin is installed. You need to install the gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse package for that. After that mp3 should be available as a format in Audio Recorder.

Sorry about the confusion; I didn't first realize that you were asking specifically about getting Audio Recorder to support mp3 and thought your question was more geared towards Ubuntu in general.

Ah, and yet again I got a little confused. It's a different Audio Recorder application you're referring to. I don't know about that application, but their Launchpad page seems to indicate that they support mp3 as an output format, too. That Audio Recoder would seem to use GStreamer as well, the same plugin package should help.

when I get home I will send you a screenshot of how their config screen looks like, in regards to Lame.

Surprised you have not heard of Audacity.

this pref. option in Audacity
http://i.imgur.com/k9Moi.png

I do know about Audacity. I was confused between Audio Recorder ( https://launchpad.net/audio-recorder ), which I had not heard of before, and Sound Recorder which comes as default with Ubuntu.

I tried the Audio Recorder application, and at least for me it offered mp3 as an output format without any configuration within the application itself. You'll need the GStreamer LAME plugin I mentioned. Once you have that installed, Audio Recorder picks it up automatically and offers mp3 as one of the formats.

On Ubuntu you can install the plugin with the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse

If you use a different Linux distribution, you'll need to install the corresponding package for it.