FLAC Questions

GoldWave general discussions and community help
Post Reply
mcarton
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2008 6:37 pm

FLAC Questions

Post by mcarton »

I'm planning on buying Goldwave. One thing I want to use it for is to convert all my CDs and old tapes to FLAC on a music server on my home network. Once I tried this process, I got the following doubts:

1. When I try to "Save As" FLAC, I get many format options: <Low/High/Max...>, <bits/sample>, <sample size>. I understand <bits/sample>, <sample size>. As for <Low/High/Max...>,
  • a) What is it?
    b) How does it impact encoding to FLAC?
    c) How does it impact playback of FLAC file?
2. I think the Wav audio is at 44100 Hz. When I used to save CDs and tapes as Wav files, I used to pick 44100 Hz.
  • a) Is there any benefit to resampling the 44100 Hz Wav files to higher rates when converting to FLAC?
    b) Is there any benefit to sampling at higher than 44100 Hz when converting CDs and old tapes to FLAC files?
    c) Will 48000 Hz (or higher) FLAC files playback OK in most/all media players?
    d) Will 48000 Hz (or higher) Wav files playback OK in most/all media players?
3. I think the Wav audio is at 16 signed bits/sample. When I used to save CDs and tapes as Wav files, I used to pick 16 signed bits/sample.
  • a) Is there any benefit to converting the 16 bits Wav files to 24 bits (or higher) when converting to FLAC?
    b) Is there any benefit to sampling at 24 bits (or higher) when converting CDs and old tapes to FLAC files?
    c) Will 24 bits (or higher) FLAC files playback OK in most/all media players?
    d) Will 24 bits (or higher) Wav files playback OK in most/all media players?
That 11 questions right there in my first post. Thanks in advance for all answers and comments.

Regards,
MikeC
Stiiv
Posts: 335
Joined: Sat May 15, 2004 7:29 pm
Location: Fallentown, PA

Post by Stiiv »

44100 16-bit stereo is the way to go. There's no quality improvement when you save 44100 audio at a higher bitrate, regardless of format.
Stiiv
GoldWave Inc.
Site Admin
Posts: 4372
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2004 6:43 pm
Location: St. John's, NL
Contact:

Re: FLAC Questions

Post by GoldWave Inc. »

The low/medium/high/maximum FLAC attributes control how much the file is compressed. Using the low setting will save the file faster, but it may not be as small as it could be. Using the maximum setting makes the file as small as possible, but takes much longed to save. The audio quality will be identical (a perfect copy) in all cases.

Always use 44100Hz, 16 bit when working with CD audio. That is the standard rate and quality. There is no advantage to using higher settings.

You could use a higher sampling rate and 24 bit quality when recording tapes, but given the frequency range of tapes and the inherent hiss noise, all you'll be recording is more noise. 24 bit files are supported in most (but not all) playback software. There is no advantage in converting an existing 16 bit Wave file to a 24 bit FLAC file.

Chris
DewDude420
Posts: 1171
Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:15 pm
Location: Washington DC Metro Area
Contact:

Post by DewDude420 »

i've been meaning to reply to this for a few days, but i keep forgetting to.

as chris stated, the normal/maximum and other options are the amount of FLAC compression applied to the files. This is usually a Q number (1 - 8), but Goldwave just gives you a few options that really anyone would need...

naturally, as stated, if you're dealing with CD, you keep it at 44.1/16.

There are no advantages in using another birate/sample rate in FLAC other than your source. Normally the FLAC encoders go by whatever the source file is, however, goldwave handles audio attributes a bit differently.

FLAC is merely a method of comrpessing PCM audio into something more managable, even if it is just a little smaller (the overall amount of compression depends on your musical content).

To answer some of your other questions in a random ordering:

Most, if not all by now, audio cards support 48khz 16-bit. So many DSP's for sound cards do thier mixing and effects processing internally at 48/16, and in some cards (like the famous SB anything), the simple hardware downsampling results in intermodulation distortion. Sometimes, depending on the card, you'd get better results running a higher quality sampling method up to 48/16...however, this is not reason enough to upsample everything to 44, people can do that on thier end if they feel a need (i personally used to use an SSRC plugin for winamp to sample everything up to 96/24...why? because the audigy's internal resampling hardware was horrible and the only effective way to bypass the DSP on the audigy 2 was to route it to the P16v chip, which handled 96/24 content exclusively).

So, really, unless you have a specific need to change your sample/bit rate...it's best to just leave it alone, you'll be happier in the long run. If anything, FLAC, like PCM, tends to get larger as you increase the amount of data it handles.
mcarton
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2008 6:37 pm

Post by mcarton »

Thanks everybody.

I'm converting everything (current as well as future, all sources) at 44100 Hz, 16 bit, max compression FLAC.

On to (a) video (b) finding a home server (c) find a media streamer
Afterimage
Posts: 34
Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2008 5:22 am

Post by Afterimage »

If you're dealing with redbook cd's (normal cd's) you should just stick with 44.1khz / 16 bits since that's the native resolution. If you change the sampling rate you can introduce sampling rate conversion errors unless you stick with multiples of 44.1 (88.2, 176.4) but there'd really be no reason to increase the sampling rate that high.

For converting analog sources to digital you might want to record at a higher sampling rate and bit-depth if you're going to do any editing, then you can do a down-conversion to 44.1 / 16 bit before burning to cd. I'd only recommend this if you're trying to maintain the highest sound quality of reel to reel tapes or lp's. With most cassettes and decks it wouldn't be worth the trouble.

I have quite a few SACD's that I've "recorded" using GoldWave just in case something was to happen to the original discs. I usually record at 96 khz / 24 bit and find that it sounds very close to the original discs. I can always burn these files to a dvd in the future so I'd have a hi-res backup that's close to the original SACD in sound quality.
Post Reply