what is a FLAC ?

[rambleon]

anyone ?

[Robert]

from the source itself:
"FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. Grossly oversimplified, FLAC is similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality. This is similar to how Zip works, except with FLAC you will get much better compression because it is designed specifically for audio, and you can play back compressed FLAC files in your favorite player (or your car or home stereo, see links to the right for supported devices) just like you would an MP3 file.

FLAC is freely available and supported on most operating systems, including Windows, "unix" (Linux, *BSD, Solaris, OS X, IRIX), BeOS, OS/2, and Amiga. There are build systems for autotools, MSVC, Watcom C, and Project Builder. "

[FlyingCloud]

thanks for the details, Robert I wasn’t clear about that, either.
so FLACs are not as big as SHNs?
where would I get a good tool to make FLACs out of audio cd’s?

[Robert]

"Flying Cloud" wrote:

so FLACs are not as big as SHNs?

Not that I’ve done a conclusive check, but as far as I can tell FLAC and SHN have about the same compression ratio(when FLAC Frontend is using the default settings, which I recommend.) So I’d just go for the one you’re most familiar with, the difference is not big anyways.

"Flying Cloud" wrote:

where would I get a good tool to make FLACs out of audio cd’s?

First of all you need to get your cd’s onto a computer. I know there’s plenty of rippers out there, but the one that’s recognised as the best is Exact Audio Copy(EAC,) and I’d definetely go with this one due to the great features the software has:
"Its unique secure mode reads all audio sectors twice for greater accuracy. If a read error is detected, EAC will reread those sectors up to 82 times to get the best result. In most cases EAC is able to recover audio data even from serious scratched CDs where other programs end up with tracks full of clicks and pops. When even EAC is no longer able to recover the data it will report the exact locations of the suspicious positions. This combined with offset correction makes the program one of the few audio extractors out there that can make perfect copies of audio tracks."

You can get EAC here:
http://www.ping.be/satcp/softwaredae01.htm#EAC”>http://www.ping.be/satcp/softwaredae01.htm#EAC
A walkthrough on how to configure EAC on your computer:
http://www.ping.be/satcp/cd2mp3-en.htm”>http://www.ping.be/satcp/cd2mp3-en.htm

-Just remember to choose to rip to wav, not mp3 when you’re ready to go. This is fairly simple though, just press the "wav logo" on the left menu of the program and you’re rolling.

As for a FLAC software:
http://home.wanadoo.nl/~w.speek/flac.htm”>http://home.wanadoo.nl/~w.speek/flac.htm
-this program is really easy to use, just open the FLAC Frontend, drag and drop the wav files you want to compress and press encode.

The FLACH homepage:
http://flac.sourceforge.net/”>http://flac.sourceforge.net/

[rambleon]

many thanks for all the good info robert

[FlyingCloud]

yeah, thanks a lot, I already used the one or other hint extensively

…what would you use as shn software? which shn freeware is the best?

are shn and flac just 2 different methods to compress wavs or are there any advantages/ disadvantages to prefer the one or other?

[Anthony]

you guys seem to be on this big flac kick and that is cool.

you have to keep in consideration that most of the people are on dialup modems and do not have the time to download a 20 MB FLAC file for one song.

Also to keep in mind, is the more and more flacs take up more disk space, thus creating more bandwidth when they are requested. And the bills get paid by me alone.

We are cool with the flacs and shns and such, but a lower quality version is necessary to accomodate the site visitors requests.
If people are slamming the mp3s on my site, then they can take "standard advice #1", and "Close your browser".

Im kind of "iffy" on these new flacs being produced from unknown sources and calling them ‘lossless’ just cuz it’s a flac now with a huge file size. copied from a CDR in probably mp3 original format.
i have not been able to distunguish the difference between a flac of one tune and an mp3 of the same with these new files being provided. Except for the massive file size.

jest my 2 sense.

[Robert]

I totally see your point about the space and bandwidth that flac’s need. Though I’m a bit more uncertain that most people are on dialup modems these days, however that’s not really a issue we need to debate Dual posting of format, both lossless and mp3 is a great offer that caters both does on high and low speed connections. Sometimes though a taper might not want his shows to be shared as mp3’s for various reasons, but if you then choose not to have the show up at fsf, this is totally acceptable since it’s your site after all

I also agree on your point about flac/shn not necessarily being lossless, but that they in fact can come from mp3 sourced cd’s. That’s why I check every cd that I recieve in a trade to see if it’s mp3 sourced, even the ones that has a clear lineage goes through this test before I trade them to others(or upload them to fsf for that matter.) An explanation on how to do this is posted here: http://www.freakscene.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=5341″>http://www.freakscene.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=5341
And if I manage I’ll try to post some freq analyzis that shows the difference.

And I also hear you loud and clear on the fact that running the site get’s more and more expensive as you need more bandwidth and hd space, and I think some sort of donation scheme would be totally justified. The site is awesome and so many people are benefitting from your great work, so some contribution back to you is just common sense.

[Robert]

Ok, here’s some frequenzy analazys pics to try to show the difference between a wav file and a mp3 sourced wav file. I have used a wav file from the dino show "live at the poly, 6 may 89, portsmouth."
This pic is of the original wavfile:
[img]http://www.freakscene.net/bbs/album_pic.php?pic_id=251[/img]

This pic is of a copy of the original file that I’ve converted to flac and then back to wav again:
[img]http://www.freakscene.net/bbs/album_pic.php?pic_id=253[/img]

This pic is of a copy of the original file that I’ve converted to 192 kbps mp3 and then back to wav again:
[img]http://www.freakscene.net/bbs/album_pic.php?pic_id=252[/img]

This pic is of a copy of the file that I’ve converted to 128 kbps mp3 and then back to wav again:
[img]http://www.freakscene.net/bbs/album_pic.php?pic_id=254[/img]

As you can see the file cuts off earlier and earlier when you have a mp3 sourced wav file, but when the file is converted from flac to wav again there are no loss.
I hope this helped explain the difference.

[simmons]

hi.

how can we make it clear that the donation is meant for running the site, and not payment for the bootlegs even though you call it "donation for running the site", it might be hard to differ it from the fact that we’re then actually paying for the bootlegs.

Some people may think of it as a smart trick to make money of bootlegs.

This is a diificult matter.

[Anthony]

no way
im not accepting any monies from anyone.

the only way i would accept money is if it was from j or the management.

[Author]

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