[Flac] Re: Odd number of samples in a stereo wave file

[Free Lunch]

On 16/11/2007, Brian Willoughby <brianw at sounds.wa.com> wrote:
> It would actually be punitive to expect the flac code to expect and
> adapt to nonsensical WAVE files.

You say "punitive".  I say it would be "reliable".

One missing byte is a huge burden and nonsensical?

People post on this list looking for solutions. They don't want to
become experts in the WAV format (including the undocumented parts).
They just want to compress their audio without losing any of the
original (you know, LOSSLESS).  And if some of their original isn't
included in the archive, they want an exit code to indicate a problem
and not that everything is okay.

Imagine if Sony, Pioneer and other hardware player manufacturers were
so quick to reject "nonsensical" audio.  Can you imagine if your car
CD player was so finicky?  How do you think real world customers would
react?  They don't want to hear excuses about format, they just want a
product to work. Sorry if that "just work" expectation is too
"punitive" for you.

> If the problem is common, then report the bug to the makers of the
> programs which produce the bad WAVE files, tell your customers to
> switch to compliant programs,

As I have stated before on this list, that is a completely unrealistic
fantasy.  I have yet to find a customer who favorably responds to
being told to change their tools. Dumping the uncooperative vendor is
generally much easier.  Customers don't want excuses, they want
solutions.

And as pointed out before, sometimes recordings get interrupted.  If a
recording device loses power it may not be able to write an even
number of bytes or update the header size. Sending bug reports to the
manufacturer won't help.  Nor will they help in cases where the
hardware is no longer being developed.

In the real world, not all WAVs are perfect.  That will never change.

I have spent many, many hours scripting around the various gotchas
that occur when you use flac to archive WAV and need some certainty
that the original WAVs will actually be recoverable.  The recently
added --keep-foreign-metadata option was a big step forward and a
Great improvement.

In the past Flac failed to generate error codes to indicate problems
with WAV files that might prevent correct archiving. As a result much
scripting and testing of the archive was required.  Recent flac
versions are much better (thanks to Josh for the improvements!).
Though I doubt I'll drop the exhaustive attempts at verifying
correctness.

> and/or write your own software which
> processes WAVE files looking for these kinds of errors and repairs
> them.  If you receive the files via uploads, it would probably be
> possible to have this step run automatically.

For many of us who produce terabytes of audio masters, modifying them
is not an option.  The potential for introducing flaws is too great.
Simply stating "reject them" is not a solution.


  FL