I had discovered almost by accident that most ppl were
using pirated MP3 encoders. I bought a legal copy direct
from Germany http://www.opticom.de
which cost me US$199, and then discovered the http://www.8hz.com
site with its much faster (and free) MP3 coder which
comes complete with source code. Platforms include
Linux, freeBSD, Windoze, etc...