FLAC is our current best hope for the future of fidelity

[Cellotron]

This past year's music sales figures showed the continuing trend of marked digital download sales growth (although a little slower than the previous year's growth) but with marked declines in CD sales (down in the USA from around the 500million units in 2007 to somewhere in the 350million units in 2008), a continued small resurgence in vinyl LP sales (heading up from 1million units in 2006 to just below 2million in 2008 - still well below CD sales by a ratio of around 175:1) - and with SACD and DVD-A sales staying at around a paltry 500,000 units each.

SO -> the unquestionable trend is that the fidelity of most of what end listeners are purchasing (the bulk of which is at the best 256kbps AAC, and on the average 128 or 192kbps mp3) is actually on the most part getting worst than it was in the past!!

If trends continue it's also very easy to imagine a future where purchasing music on audio only optical disc formats will occur only for a small niche.

Bringing me to the point of the post:

FLAC to me is the best current format choice for the ability to continue high fidelity delivery to the end listener in the future in that as a lossLESS codec it allows the absolute same sound quality on playback as uncompressed PCM for half the download time and half the size it takes up on a Personal Music Player's drive (definite considerations to the end user even if broadband access gets much faster than it currently is - i.e. who wouldn't want to have these things 2x better if all other things are equal?).

There are indeed a number of other lossless audio codecs (i.e. Apple's proprietary format ALAC, Monkeys Audio, WavPack, etc.) - but the facts that FLAC is completely open source, non-proprietary, license free, and already has well developed software support, plus a decent bit of existing hardware support as well - to me makes it the best choice of the current alternatives.

This - along with FLAC's ability to be sent at better than CD quality (24bit with support to 192kHz and beyond), that it can be sent as a surround file (up to 7.1), and that it is fully taggable (FLAC supports all id3 tags, including ISRC and various bitmap formats of cover art - while it should be noted that there is no standard way to tag uncompressed PCM files currently) makes it the best candidate for continuing to have a high fideliity delivery format in a future time when very likely nearly no one will be buying audio only optical discs.

Honestly - with some folks still complaining that the 16bit/44.1kHz CD format doesn't sound as best as music possibly could - then a 320kbps mp3's made from the same really does not cut it!

As far as when ultra-broadband transmission will be common - this is hard to say and well beyond the scope of my area of knowledge to do any more than guess the same as anyone else on this board. I've read some things indicating that existing infrastructure (such as telephone lines, satellites and transmission stations) and the cost/time of updating it is what's holding up really massive bandwidth - so in a time of economic downturn I don't know whether the investments to make instant transmission of uncompressed PCM a reality will happen soon, later, or not at all.

In the meantime - FLAC can give you all the sound quality of a CD but at half the download time and takes up half the hard drive space. It's already supported by lots of software and a good number of hardware players (both for home and portable) and the Rockbox - Rockbox - Open Source Jukebox Firmware - firmware allows you to update many models of iPods to support it as well.

SO - it's up to us as engineers and artists to start to make our clients aware of the possibilities of the format and to make our tunes available in this format in order to create broader consumer knowledge and demand for it.

There's a few sites that sell FLAC's online already and are open to independent artists for online distribution:
HDtracks high resolution audiophile music downloads
indietorrent.org Digital Music Marketplace - Welcome to indietorrent.org.
Welcome to Mindawn - Home

Which brings me next to the issue of pricing: I see a trend that whenever a higher quality mp3 is sold online it's usually for a greater asking price. I think we as content providers need to start making higher fidelity versions available for the same or even lesser price! - because to a lot of end users the larger download time and larger file size is an inconvenience that they want to avoid - so by making the playing field more equal we have more of a chance of having a high fidelity format continue into the future. i.e. I strongly believe that if when DVD-A and SACD were introduce the discs were priced a few dollars below CD's instead of a few dollars more the formats might be a lot stronger than they are now. But I think once people hear things in a higher fidelity a lot of them will be hooked - instead of accepting the degraded sound of mp3 as "good enough".

To conclude: if you're an audio engineer of artist concerned with having a way in the future to easily deliver your mixes at full resolution to the end listener then
PLEASE SUPPORT FLAC!!!

FLAC - Free Lossless Audio Codec

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[tdbajus]

The downside is that most people listen to music on iPods or their computer speakers, so a 24bit file is pretty much just a waste of space.

Seems like if there is going to be a revolution, it should happen first on the playback side- playing your digital files through your stereo is kind of a pain in the ass- seems like some one out there should make something that fits into your component stereo setup, and streams your FLAC or apple lossless files to your home stereo...

Or does someone make something like that? People that I know that have their computers hooked up to the stereos see to run out of the headphone jack into the line-in on their receivers.

[Cellotron]

The downside is that most people listen to music on iPods or their computer speakers, so a 24bit file is pretty much just a waste of space.

Seems like if there is going to be a revolution, it should happen first on the playback side- playing your digital files through your stereo is kind of a pain in the ass- seems like some one out there should make something that fits into your component stereo setup, and streams your FLAC or apple lossless files to your home stereo...

Or does someone make something like that? People that I know that have their computers hooked up to the stereos see to run out of the headphone jack into the line-in on their receivers.

There are already a good number of home oriented (and portable as well) digital media players out there that support FLAC - http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html#hardware

And you can of course easily make a FLAC off a 16bit/44.1kHz file if you want to - in which case it's half the size as the same exact audio would be if it had been saved as wav or aiff.

Anyway -
When I was on tour a little bit ago and there was lots of hours just sitting listening to tunes in a van I'd always get a lot more fatigued by the sound of mp3's coming off the iPod plugged into the car's stereo system - vs. listening to CD's played over the same. Even in these less than optimal systems I still think having a full resolution playback makes a big difference to appreciating the details and richness of the original recording. The way even 256kbps mp3's smear the top end to me is very distracting and unappealing.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[alex matson]

You know, I have downloaded a Bud Powell album lately on FLAC, as well as Bill Laswell's Ambient Translation of Bob Marley in Dub, but had trouble with the FLAC converter - I believe it translates on the fly rather than creating a new converted file. Can someone recommend a reliable FLAC Mac converter that works?

[Cellotron]

You know, I have downloaded a Bud Powell album lately on FLAC, as well as Bill Laswell's Ambient Translation of Bob Marley in Dub, but had trouble with the FLAC converter - I believe it translates on the fly rather than creating a new converted file. Can someone recommend a reliable FLAC Mac converter that works?

A list of OSX compatible FLAC decoders, encoders, and players is at
http://flac.sourceforge.net/documentati ... s.html#osx

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[;ivlunsdystf]

FLAC FTW
Rockbox FTW

I just sent multitracks to my pal in California - stems, 16 bit stereo files. The files in .wav format were 130 MB. FLAC tore 'em down to 33 MB. How cool is that.

My current favorite app for moving between FLAC, wav, mp3 (lame) and the others is dbpoweramp. It is very convenient with good interface, and amazingly quick.

[austingreen]

I love FLAC. I use MediaMonkey (free version) to stream, burn, or rip audio in lots of formats, via MOTU, to stereo in living room or monitors in control room. I use a Cowon A3 and X5 for portable audio and video in almost any format. Cowon A3 has a great screen for video but also hooks up directly to tv and plays Divx, Xvid, WMV, or any other video codex... And plays and records FM radio, and line-in records in MP3 or FLAC. A3 also features a 10-band EQ w/ 3 different settings of bandwidth and Q for each band! Love this player, it's kinda big but that's what my X5 is for: small lossless audio player, again plays almost any format: wav, mp3, flac, ogg. Also like dbPoweramp but last I checked Ver12 didn't burn from FLAC, not sure. EAC + AutoFLAC for solid burning and ripping is also great. Sorry for the ad for Cowon but I love these products, good support too. Doesn't Sonar support FLAC?

[@?,*???&?]

Is this what T-Bone Burnett is using? He and Gavin Lurssen sort of have their finger on the right stuff.

[;ivlunsdystf]

FLAC is the new animal skin drum heads.

[alex matson]

VLC does it. Diggin on the laswell right now...(hey mistah rock-ock-ock)

[Aquaman]

Bill Laswell's Ambient Translation of Bob Marley in Dub,

Just came in to say that this is quite possibly the most disappointing album I have ever purchased. Enjoy!

[alex matson]

Well, opinions vary. But thanks.

[currentspulledmeunder]

There's a few sites that sell FLAC's online already and are open to independent artists for online distribution:
HDtracks high resolution audiophile music downloads
indietorrent.org Digital Music Marketplace - Welcome to indietorrent.org.
Welcome to Mindawn - Home

Just wanted to chime in and add another site that I think is fantastic:
http://bandcamp.mu/

Not only does is support Flac it supports just about every possible desired audio format. Super cool, totally free and all proceeds (if any, you can set the price of downloads as a band or allow free downloads) will go directly to the artists (and paypal). I think distribution like this will be the trend. I just put my band's music on there and was super impressed.

[Cellotron]

There's a few sites that sell FLAC's online already and are open to independent artists for online distribution:
HDtracks high resolution audiophile music downloads
indietorrent.org Digital Music Marketplace - Welcome to indietorrent.org.
Welcome to Mindawn - Home

Just wanted to chime in and add another site that I think is fantastic:
http://bandcamp.mu/

Not only does is support Flac it supports just about every possible desired audio format. Super cool, totally free and all proceeds (if any, you can set the price of downloads as a band or allow free downloads) will go directly to the artists (and paypal). I think distribution like this will be the trend. I just put my band's music on there and was super impressed.

Cool! thanks for the link.

a good number of other sites supporting FLAC as well are at
http://flac.sourceforge.net/links.html#music

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[argonautlabs]

<rant> First, people have to stop brickwall limiting everything so it sounds like shmoo. Then, when they can hear the music they will realize mp3s don't sound that great. Then, there is probably a bit more that can be done regarding filesize and lossless compression. But yeah, for now, flac all day. Somebody should really notify portable music player manufacturers though. They didn't get the memo. </rant>

But then again I like to listen to music with headphones in the dark. My stereo is usually off in the car.

I'm truly looking forward to the day when my new music purchases sound decent again.

The files in .wav format were 130 MB. FLAC tore 'em down to 33 MB. How cool is that.

I usually only get around 50-60% for the slowest setting on stereo mixed tracks, but I guess if they were stems you probably weren't using the entire dynamic range most of time. I wish DAWs had a flac archiving function for squishing projects like this when you arent planning on using them for a while. You would get some serious compression on individual tracks. <25% maybe?