[flac-dev] Encode wav to uncompressed flac

[Brian Willoughby]

There is no quality difference between FLAC variations - compressed  
or uncompressed (unless you force a 24-bit audio file into a 16-bit  
FLAC, but that may not even be possible). The only thing that varies  
with FLAC is the size of the file. There are many ways to store the  
same data, some more efficient than others. FLAC ensures that the  
exact same audio samples will reach your playback device, while  
merely using less disk space (or network bandwidth) to represent the  
same data. The whole point of FLAC is that it is lossless.

WAV files allow metadata, too. BWF (Broadcast Wave File) requires  
even more metadata types than WAV. FLAC can preserve this metadata,  
but is perhaps not the most efficient way to store some metadata.

What sorts of metadata do you need in the audio file?

As for uncompressed, all audio file formats except RAW have some  
amount of overhead. With WAV, the overhead is somewhat fixed,  
although there can be any amount of extra chunks of data. With FLAC,  
if you force it to be uncompressed, the overhead is slightly larger  
due to the block structure.

FLAC might be slightly more appropriate for streaming, because the  
blocks are largely independent, unlike WAV where metadata is not  
repeated more than once.

Bottom line, as Erik has been saying, there is absolutely no reason  
not to use FLAC compression. There is nothing lost.

Brian Willoughby
Sound Consulting


On Dec 2, 2013, at 01:42, Maciej Mączyński wrote:
> I thought that an uncompressed FLAC file provides better sound  
> quality than
> a compressed FLAC file.


On Dec 2, 2013, at 00:08, Maciej Mączyński wrote:
> File size is not important for me. I need audio data from wav file and
> metadata in one file. How to encode a wav file to an uncompressed  
> flac file?
>
> Regards,
> Maciej
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>> Maciej Mączyński wrote:
>>> Is it possible to encode wav file to uncompressed flac file?
>>