[Flac-dev] Re: FLAC: same features as WavPack

[Brian Willoughby]

Hi Justin,

I am using flac on the Mac OS X command-line with AIFF input files.   
In fact, you can use my Mac installer for flac to get everything you  
need for working 24-bit files in FLAC.  You can also build flac from  
the open-source project to get the same thing.

It sounds like you're using libFLAC, and the REAPER programmers are  
unable to get it working with 24-bit.  Have you tried changing the  
alignment of the samples to follow the libFLAC requirements?  It's  
not easy to get it right, but it is possible.

I have written my own software which uses libFLAC, and it took a  
while to get the setup calls correct.  I am able to play 24-bit  
files, but I can't remember if I have encoded any.  It might be  
interesting for me to use my own tools to encode 24-bit and see if I  
have any problems.

I think you need to try a little harder.  It's not really fair to go  
around saying that FLAC is broken for 24-bit files when it really is  
only broken in your software, and not when you use the tools that  
come with FLAC.  The working tools are open-source, so perhaps the  
REAPER programmers should look at that to see how to do it right.

I'm sorry if this seems harsh, but there are a log of non-programmers  
here who are getting confused about the difference between the  
official FLAC and stuff from third-party software that might be  
broken.  FLAC itself is not broken.

Brian Willoughby
Sound Consulting


On Mar 30, 2007, at 14:35, Justin Frankel wrote:

Brian Willoughby wrote:
> Hi Justin,
>
> Are you saying that 24-bit support does not work for you?  Which  
> version of FLAC are you using?  What platform?  What kind of files  
> are you trying to compress?

We're using FLAC 1.1.2, and we're compressing any kinds of PCM audio.  
The software that we make that uses it is REAPER, www.reaper.fm.

We sent some messages back in august, as did other people, that FLAC  
is using the verbatim block type or whatnot.. if you like I can dig  
up the emails, but at some point there was a reply from Josh Coalson  
saying something about a bug in the rice encoder...

> I am not any kind of official spokesperson for FLAC, but this  
> alleged report about 24-bit problems surfaced in Aug 2006.   
> However, I have been successfully using 24-bit FLAC since June of  
> 2004, and I have never seen a single problem.  The largest FLAC- 
> compressed files are 69% of the original 24-bit file, and I have  
> never seen one end up larger than the original.  In other words, I  
> have never been able to reproduce the problem.  I have recorded  
> about 90 live shows in 24-bit format, up to 18 channels multitrack,  
> and have successfully compressed over 75 GB of 24-bit audio with  
> absolutely no errors.
>

Which version of FLAC are you using, and on what platform(s)?

> Why would you tell people to use WavPack when FLAC is flawless?

Because FLAC in 24 bit mode doesnt work with our application!  We  
also posted our encoder setup calls etc, and I believe we heard back  
that it should be fine. And everything works hunky dory in 16 bit mode..

-Justin