eichler
Sorry not to know about the latest beta.I have a version at least 6 months old.I do recommend the "lamebatch" shell to run the codec.You can drag and drop your waves in a queue for batch processing,very convenient.
If you are planning music for download over the web,I recommend stereo 256K bit rate on the resolution for sound quality.For those folks that are too antsy to wait for a modest 5 minute download,offer them lessor quality streaming audio like microsoft's .wma or .asx formats.These are available free on the m.s. download page at their site.
Tom