Flexis Posted May 26, 2005 Report Share Posted May 26, 2005 Can anyone explain to me what this codec is what I can pratically use it for?I've looked at their website and it's supposed to be a lossless audiocodec?But there didn't seem to be much devices supporting it.Is it any usefull toward's MD I've seen it mentioned in several places on this forum.I thought it was supposed to be some sort of audio zip thet you had to unpack again before playing?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bug80 Posted May 26, 2005 Report Share Posted May 26, 2005 Yes, you can speak of it as some sort of audio zip, but actually it is possible to play the files without unpacking in advance. There are plugins available for Winamp, Foobar2000, Nero, etc. It even supports tagging.The typical reduction in file size with FLAC is 40-60%.Player support is still lacking indeed, but for the moment FLAC is mostly used by people who want to backup their CD's in a lossless format, so that they can re-encode to whatever lossy format they like (MP3,OGG..). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syrius Posted May 27, 2005 Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 Jet Audio is a free, no crapware included, fully featured media player that you can use to convert and play your files to FLAC with a few clicks, if you are not a fan of command lines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bananatree Posted May 27, 2005 Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 For MD purposes, FLAC is nice for downloading lossless (and not to mention Gapless) copies of Concerts.Dubbing out from your soundcard either digital or analog. It makes for a pretty good time, since you can download large amounts of files in torrents all nice and lined up. Player support could be a lot better as only one commercially available HDD player has the capability of playing FLAC files natively. (Rio Karma) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zerodB Posted May 27, 2005 Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 Another useful lossless codec for MD users is Windows Media Audio Lossless. SonicStage can actually interpret these files and transfer them to your unit (in HiSP/HiLP/LP2/LP4/etc. of course...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atrain Posted May 27, 2005 Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 WMAL > Flac for sonicstage users imo. as zeroe hinted there's less steps to get the music on the player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breepee2 Posted May 27, 2005 Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 FLAC is a form of compressed audio. You don't need to unzip, it play's back directly (like MP3 and Atrac). It's main point is it is lossless (so you store bitperfect copies of you CD's). The other one is that it's released under an open-source license, which means anyone can always and anywhere use it (there's no big evil company who can decide to not support you in the future). It's not supported on every portable device, but it is the most (and aside from Apple Lossless) and the only supported lossless codec.Essentially it is a .wav at 55% at .wav size.I have most of my CD's in FLAC on disc. Sony supporting this next-gen codec (or at least it's own lossless codec) would be truly great. I think the time is over for crappy lossy codecs anymore. Lossless is the future. Raw audio is of course also not required anymore as a playback codec, there's no use in throwing 45% of space away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prof.OND Posted May 30, 2005 Report Share Posted May 30, 2005 there's no use in throwing 45% of space awayDepends on how you look at it? Is it possible to edit a FLAC recording into the smallest details, to do spectrum analysis and apply filters? Iff this is possible then we don't need the raw WAV files anymore and we'll only use the sophisticated FLAC files.By the way does FLAC support all bitrates (16-32) and frequencies (44100 - 48000)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breepee2 Posted May 30, 2005 Report Share Posted May 30, 2005 Depends on how you look at it? Is it possible to edit a FLAC recording into the smallest details, to do spectrum analysis and apply filters? Iff this is possible then we don't need the raw WAV files anymore and we'll only use the sophisticated FLAC files.By the way does FLAC support all bitrates (16-32) and frequencies (44100 - 48000)? ←Yes and yes. FLAC is just a form of compressing raw audio, there's not one bit lost when comparing to wav. Of course when editing everything will be decompressed and recompressed later when saving, because the way FLAC compresses differs from bit to bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hironiemus Posted May 30, 2005 Report Share Posted May 30, 2005 is flac better than wma or apple lossless?I mean the only way it could be "better" is if it was smaller.So is it smaller? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breepee2 Posted May 30, 2005 Report Share Posted May 30, 2005 Nope, although the difference is not big. But it has a good reason. Decoding FLAC takes less CPU than decoding MP3. WMA Lossless (and all other lossless codecs) are heavier than FLAC to decode. That's why it's such a good candidate for portable use, it doesn't drain your batteries as much as other formats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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