[MAC] Audacity/LAME file location RAGE!!!

devinshire · Post by **devinshire** » April 27th, 2011, 3:10 pm

I sure hope someone can help me with this because I am just about at my wit's end with trying to get my software up and running for this. I am using a MacBook Pro (OS X v10.6.7) and I downloaded both Audacity and LAME as suggested in all the tutorials. The problem is, I can't seem to get them to recognize each other. The instructions on the wiki said I needed to go to "preferences" and then "libraries" in Audacity and find the file named libmp3lame.dylib. There is no such file anywhere on my computer!!! There's nothing at all that ends in .dylib! I am sure I've installed LAME correctly - in fact, I've done it several times and I still can't figure out why it's being so incredibly lame! Is there something I'm meant to do that I haven't done yet? Why am I not finding this magical file that will allow me to export my mp3s?

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

And just to clarify, I don't seem to have Garage Band on my computer because it's a work computer and they left out certain applications. So I am completely stuck if I can't get past this hurdle.

Post by **TriciaG** » April 27th, 2011, 3:13 pm

You'll get past it - never fear!

Is there a Zip file you have to unzip?

devinshire · Post by **devinshire** » April 27th, 2011, 3:24 pm

TriciaG wrote:Is there a Zip file you have to unzip?

There doesn't seem to be one. It all leads into this loop...everything I click takes me back to the .dmg file which in turn tries to take me through the installation steps again. I have installed this software at least six times this evening and the results haven't varied at all. Something isn't right!

David Richardson · Post by **David Richardson** » April 27th, 2011, 3:50 pm

Hi - I'm using a mac and 10.6.7. Download Lame (for mac) and do the install - then do a quick recording in Audacity and export as mp3. You can leave Lame in downloads and audacity seems to find it and create a file in Users/yourname/music/Audacity

The file should read: Lame Library v3.98.2 for audacity pkg

Assuming that's successful go for a download of FFmpeg library as well which can import/export aiff's and mp4's.

Hope that's helpful - it confused me a bit and I thought it hadn't installed and kept re-installing but then I just did an mp3 export and it worked!

David

Post by **philchenevert** » April 27th, 2011, 4:27 pm

Please forgive me if you have been using this page but I had to go to the Audacity pages to figure it out for myself. The Mac instructions are a bit lower on the page:

So here it is.: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/LAME_MP3

devinshire · Post by **devinshire** » April 28th, 2011, 3:23 am

David Richardson wrote:Hi - I'm using a mac and 10.6.7. Download Lame (for mac) and do the install - then do a quick recording in Audacity and export as mp3. You can leave Lame in downloads and audacity seems to find it and create a file in Users/yourname/music/Audacity

That didn't work for me. I tried to export as mp3 and I got the error message "could not locate mp3 library". I have no idea what to do, because installing this software over and over again is like hitting my head against a wall. The .dylib file still isn't showing up anywhere, and that's what is stopping me from exporting files.

devinshire · Post by **devinshire** » April 28th, 2011, 3:33 am

philchenevert wrote:Please forgive me if you have been using this page but I had to go to the Audacity pages to figure it out for myself. The Mac instructions are a bit lower on the page:

So here it is.: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/LAME_MP3

I have looked at that page, thank you. Unfortunately, I've gone through all those steps several times and the "libmp3lame.dylib" file still isn't showing up on my computer.

Thanks for all your suggestions, everyone. It looks like there isn't anything else I can do, so I'm just going to leave it for now because I can't afford to waste much more time on this. Shame.

David Richardson · Post by **David Richardson** » April 28th, 2011, 9:25 am

I'm sure there's a simple solution - I'm just not expert enough to know what it is but hopefully someone will! In the interim here's a short-term fix. Export from Audacity as a WAV file to say, Desktop. Once done, double click on the file and if itunes is your default sound app the file will import and open in itunes. Then just go to 'advanced' in itunes and click on convert to mp3. You can then drag the mp3 file from itunes back to desktop or wherever. Bit fiddly but I've tried it and it does work.

David

neckertb · Post by **neckertb** » April 28th, 2011, 9:55 am

I use a Mac too and never figured this out, so I convert to mp3 via iTunes. Before that I used to use a free software called switch (you should find it on Google) and that worked splendidly too (as long as you did not leave it open for too long, it had a tendency to freeze otherwise).

devinshire · Post by **devinshire** » April 28th, 2011, 10:01 am

Cheers, everyone! I really appreciate the help. Sorry to be so dramatic earlier, I just don't have much patience when it comes to technology. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only Mac user who has had this problem. Later on tonight I'll try those solutions that were recently suggested and we'll hope for the best. Thank you very much!

earthcalling · Post by **earthcalling** » April 28th, 2011, 11:52 am

Devinshire,

Firstly, try using the Finder to locate the Lame file. Open the finder, and type lame in the little search field; select This Mac and File Name from the search options. If you have downloaded it, it'll show up; click the icon and it'll tell you where the file is located. Make a mental note.

In Audacity, go to Audacity->Preferences, then select File Formats from the options at the top of the Preferences box. At the bottom is MP3 export set-up. There's a button to Find library; you can then browse to the location you found from the Finder, and establish the link between audacity and Lame.

David

David Richardson · Post by **David Richardson** » April 29th, 2011, 1:21 am

Hey Earthcalling, You got an invitation to the wedding? - suspect London might be a tad busy today!

Devinshire - Yep as David says do a Finder or Spotight search for Lame Library. I put my 'Lame Library v.3.98.2 .pkg' in users/local/music - the package has the. dylib file within it (which you won't find in a 'finder' or 'spotlight' search, but only in the audacity/preferences/libraries 'browse button'). I think I read that if you put the .pkg in 'music' then close and re-open Audacity it automatically finds the .dylib - but if that don't work just try the browse button. Final thought - which version od Audacity are you using - I'm using 1.3.13 but originally set Lame up in 1.3.12 - If you still have a problem try the Audacity forum http://forum.audacityteam.org/

earthcalling · Post by **earthcalling** » April 29th, 2011, 9:36 am

David Richardson wrote:Hey Earthcalling, You got an invitation to the wedding? - suspect London might be a tad busy today!

(Un?)fortunately, I'm away from it all, so relying on the odd peep at TV. Had to give my invitation to a passing stranger.

David

shelleturner · Post by **shelleturner** » January 26th, 2019, 11:50 pm

I see these posts are really old but I have to say I had the exact same issue finding the download of Lame this evening but finally had success. I first used the normal download for Mac (Mohave 10.14) and could not find the Lame download anywhere. After much searching and grinding teeth I went back and downloaded the ZIP version of Lame. Of course I am totally lame myself and didn't realize right away that the icon that looks like a lego is the dang thing I was looking for. So I moved that lego piece to the Folder with Audacity and finally it worked. I don't believe the original download (non-zip) actually installed anything. So ZIP is the way to go. It is done and works