[Gwc-general] Strange behavior of gwc on Debian Lenny

[John C. <ci...@pu...>]

Hi all,

I have updated from Debian Etch to Lenny and now started using gwc 
again.  I encoded a couple of files, but when I went back to play them 
they are garbage.
The size is about right, 3-5 megabytes, and when I look at the file 
properties, everything seems normal. But the sound is some scratchy 
hissing sound, no evidence of the original material.
I've tried changing several of the mp3 settings in gwc to no avail, even 
downloaded and compiled the 0.21.10 version to see if that helps.
All my previous mp3s play fine. I've checked them in audacious and in 
mpg123.  Also, if I use lame at the command line, simply lame infile.wav 
outfile.mp3, those files sound fine as well.
I ran gwc at the command line to see if there was any interesting output.
On the one computer, (gwc 0.21.08), it shows:
> jcirillo@john:/Archive/autolame/in$ gwc
> Current stack limit: 8388608 bytes
> libsndfile Version: libsndfile-1.0.17 1 0 17
> MP3 preset is 2
> Assuming raw pcm input file : Forcing byte-swapping
> LAME 3.98.2 32bits (http://www.mp3dev.org/)
> CPU features: , 3DNow! (ASM used)
> Using polyphase lowpass filter, transition band: 18671 Hz - 19205 Hz
> Encoding <stdin> to /Archive/autolame/in/Chapin_Harry-WOLD-gwc.mp3
> Encoding as 44.1 kHz stereo MPEG-1 Layer III VBR(q=2) qval=5
I don't know if that's the normal expected output or not. I was a little 
concerned that it says raw pcm input, forcing byte-swapping. Is that right?

I did another install on my laptop, also running Lenny. I tried encoding 
the same file as above using gwc 0.21.10:
> jcirillo@john1:~/gwc-0.21-10$ ./gwc
> Current stack limit: 8388608 bytes
> libsndfile Version: libsndfile-1.0.17 1 0 17
> MP3 preset is 2
> WARNING: -k is obsolete.
> Assuming raw pcm input file : Forcing byte-swapping
> LAME 3.98.2 32bits (http://www.mp3dev.org/)
> Using polyphase lowpass filter, transition band: 18671 Hz - 19205 Hz
> Encoding <stdin> to /autolame/Chapin_Harry-WOLDtest.mp3
> Encoding as 44.1 kHz stereo MPEG-1 Layer III VBR(q=2) qval=2
(then I changed a few settings)
> jcirillo@john1:~/gwc-0.21-10$ ./gwc
> Current stack limit: 8388608 bytes
> libsndfile Version: libsndfile-1.0.17 1 0 17
> WARNING: -k is obsolete.
> Assuming raw pcm input file : Forcing byte-swapping
> LAME 3.98.2 32bits (http://www.mp3dev.org/)
> CPU features: MMX (ASM used), SSE (ASM used), SSE2
> Using polyphase lowpass filter, transition band: 16538 Hz - 17071 Hz
> Encoding <stdin> to /autolame/Chapin_Harry-WOLD.mp3
> Encoding as 44.1 kHz stereo MPEG-1 Layer III (11x) 128 kbps qval=2
They all produce garbage!

This is really baffling.  I don't know where to go from here.  Something 
changed in lame's commands?
Any hints what I can try next?

Thanks,

John