[flac-dev] New ID registration

[Brian Willoughby]

A few comments:

1) Many embedded devices that have FLAC support only handle a subset of the FLAC capabilities. It seems highly unlikely that an embedded device would have the ability to parse Vorbis file format wrappers around FLAC data. In other words, depending upon how broad you want the support to be, it might be best to make this addition to FLAC rather than Vorbis.

2) In general, changes to FLAC are submitted as a PATCH. I do not believe anyone will add the new ID for you. You will need to add it yourself, without making any mistakes that would affect the existing FLAC functionality, and then submit your patch for approval. I am not certain that this is the correct approach, but it seems to be what I have witnessed. Discussion of the intended addition is wise, of course, as you have done.

3) I am concerned that you say this Replaygain data is large, and that it is float. These choices seem like overkill for a format that is lossless, and which basically uses fixed point integers up to 24 bits in size. Can you explain why the data is so large?

4) I assume that most FLAC players will ignore this App ID addition. In other words, I assume that only your custom player will be able to apply Replaygain. As a FLAC user, I would want to know that you’ve tested existing FLAC software and firmware to be sure that adding this App ID will not cause problems with existing players, especially embedded devices (e.g. Sound Devices, OPPO, etc.). Will Sony be performing any such tests?

Brian Willoughby


On Dec 11, 2018, at 3:05 AM, Kurosawa, Taku <taku.kurosawa at labelgate.com> wrote:
> Hi Martjn, and everyone,
>  
> Apologies if I have missed the reply, but I think I have not got any comment so far on this. That means our new ID request is accepted? What should I do next to proceed??  Apparently this is my first time here, so appreciate any advice assistance.
>  
> Best regards,
>  
> Taku
>  
> From: Kurosawa, Taku 
> Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2018 8:41 PM
> To: Martijn van Beurden
> Cc: flac-dev at xiph.org
>  
> Hi Martijn,
>  
> Sorry for the late reply again,
> The application we are preparing this time is not exactly similar to Replaygain.
>  
> Replaygain as we understand is something which normalize the loudness at content provider side, but our application takes different approach. It is designed to normalize the loudness at player side, according to the metadata embedded within the content, which could be relatively big in its size, so it will be unfit for Vorbis comment. Besides that, its concept, format are incompatible with Replaygain, and we are putting effort to add additional features to that in the future, which makes metadata size even bigger.
> The Player compatible with will only be the one we are developing, for now.
>  
> Best regards,
>  
> Taku
>  
> From: Martijn van Beurden 
> Sent: Friday, November 16, 2018 8:03 PM
> To: Kurosawa, Taku
> Cc: flac-dev at xiph.org
>  
> Hi,
>  
> I'm sorry, but that link doesn't seem to include anything specific about the metadata itself. The reason I'm asking is because, for player compatibility, it is probably much easier to use a vorbiscomment to store metadata. Replaygain normalisation uses Vorbiscomment too. Most FLAC players already read vorbiscomment, so for implementing plugins, this is probably much easier.
>  
> Kind regards, Martijn van Beurden
>  
> Op wo 14 nov. 2018 om 07:56 schreef Kurosawa, Taku <taku.kurosawa at labelgate.com>:
>> Hi, Martijn,
>>  
>> Thank you for reaching out, and apologies for late reply
>> It is a dedicated metadata for volume normalization on our player.
>> Please kindly refer to our company information here: https://labelgate.com/
>>  
>> application ID: SONN
>> application name: Sony Normalizer
>> contact e-mail address: taku.kurosawa at labelgate.com
>>  
>> Taku
>>  
>> From: Martijn van Beurden
>> Sent: Wednesday, November 7, 2018 3:19 PM
>> To: flac-dev at xiph.org
>>  
>> Hi,
>> 
>> Could you please describe your application? While it is possible to use FLAC Application metadata blocks, it isn't common practice.
>> 
>> Kind regards, Martijn van Beurden
>> 
>> Op 07-11-18 om 03:14 schreef Kurosawa, Taku:
>>> To whom it may concern,
>>>  
>>> Hi, I would like to register a new ID hrere,
>>>  
>>> application ID: SONN
>>> application name: Sony Normalizer
>>> contact e-mail address: taku.kurosawa at labelgate.com
>>>  
>>> please advise what the next step would be.
>>>  
>>> Best regards,
>>>  
>>> Taku Kurosawa
>>