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FLAC compression. Any opinions? [message #195526]

Mon, 30 October 2006 10:58

Bill Mueller
Messages: 2296
Registered: April 2004
Location: Joppatowne Maryland

Platinum Member

Does anyone have an opinion on FLAC?

http://flac.sourceforge.net/

Thanks,

Bill

"Don't take it personally. But this shit is a science." J.J.Blair

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Re: FLAC compression. Any opinions? [message #195529 is a reply to message #195526 ]

Mon, 30 October 2006 11:21

Malcolm Boyce
Messages: 230
Registered: September 2005
Location: Saint John, NB, Canada

Active Member

Wonderfully lossless. Smile

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Re: FLAC compression. Any opinions? [message #195539 is a reply to message #195526 ]

Mon, 30 October 2006 12:03

magicchord
Messages: 79
Registered: April 2004
Location: Lost Angeles

Member

It works well for me, but I must warn you that my collaborators who are on the MAC OSX platform have had trouble getting the MAC distributions like xAct to work properly.

And the typical MAC user is very suspicious of open-source software anyway Smile

It's great in the Windows realm though. And it is lossless and supports all the bit depths and sample rates.

Patrick Bryant - Magicchord Music BMI

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Re: FLAC compression. Any opinions? [message #195541 is a reply to message #195526 ]

Mon, 30 October 2006 12:05

mpd
Messages: 14
Registered: February 2006

Member

The last time I tested FLAC it didn't preserve metadata (regions, markers, etc). Could be changed now, or I could have been overlooking an option.

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Re: FLAC compression. Any opinions? [message #195546 is a reply to message #195526 ]

Mon, 30 October 2006 12:22

Bob Olhsson
Messages: 2907
Registered: April 2004
Location: Songwriter Gulch Nashvill...

Platinum Member

WavPack preserves meta-data but only supports .wav and BWF.

I happen to think anything worth recording is worth using BWF for because it's the only international standard and it's not tied to any platform or developer. WavPack works perfectly with BWFs and Foobar can play them back at full resolution. Don't know how well the Mac version works.

I've been sending Apple lossless to clients for rapid master approvals but it's only 16 bit and strips meta-data.

Bob's workroom (615) 385-8051
http://www.hyperback.com
http://womb.mixerman.net

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Re: FLAC compression. Any opinions? [message #307854 is a reply to message #195526 ]

Tue, 22 January 2008 09:17

Dom Berg
Messages: 226
Registered: November 2005
Location: Quebec, Canada

Active Member

Sorry to bring back this old and dusty topic but,
I don't find any quality and convicting article that prove without a doubt that FLAC compression is really lossless...

How come a compress format can be lossless?
thx for helpin' me understand this one...

Dom Berg,
Sonolab Studios, PQ, Canada.
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/WAKEUPROCKS

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Re: FLAC compression. Any opinions? [message #307874 is a reply to message #307854 ]

Tue, 22 January 2008 10:40

garret
Messages: 822
Registered: November 2004
Location: Champaign, IL

Gold Member

Dom Berg wrote on Tue, 22 January 2008 10:17

Flac is a data compression routine, optimized for PCM audio data. It's not an audio compression routine like mp3 or ogg vorbis that works by throwing out "unnecessary" detail.

It's more like a zip archive, but with audio headers so applications can play/record directly in FLAC format.

I just did a round trip conversion of an audio file from wave -> flac -> wav again. The final wave file is identical to the original.

tomorrow is already here - new cd released! http://cdbaby.com/tiah/
http://www.worksongs.net/

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Re: FLAC compression. Any opinions? [message #307903 is a reply to message #307854 ]

Tue, 22 January 2008 11:54

Andy Peters
Messages: 751
Registered: April 2004
Location: Tucson, AZ

Gold Member

Dom Berg wrote on Tue, 22 January 2008 08:17

Look at it this way. You probably have downloaded applications for use on your computer, and invariably these downloads are in some kind of compressed archive format (.zip, .tar.gz, .rar).

If the compression was not truly lossless, then you can imagine that one or more bits would change.

A single bit change in an executable file can result in an illegal opcode, which will result in the processor throwing an exception, bringing your program to a screeching halt. Since this does not happen, you can rest assured that lossless compression indeed works.

Besides, if you were truly concerned that FLAC (or any other compression technique) was not truly lossless, then you could convince yourself by doing a null test. Take an audio file, compress it, uncompress it, and subtract the original from the compressed/uncompressed version. The result should be identically zero for all samples.

-a

PS: it would be fun to compress an audiophile. In a vise.

"On the Internet, nobody can hear you mix a band."

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Re: FLAC compression. Any opinions? [message #308215 is a reply to message #195526 ]

Wed, 23 January 2008 06:44

Dom Berg
Messages: 226
Registered: November 2005
Location: Quebec, Canada

Active Member

MANY THX!
A LOT CLEARER NOW.

PEACE

Dom Berg,
Sonolab Studios, PQ, Canada.
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/WAKEUPROCKS

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