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Topic: converting flac to alac; 32 bit float vs. 16 bit pcm (Read 5419 times) previous topic - next topic
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converting flac to alac; 32 bit float vs. 16 bit pcm

hey guys, i recently made the switch from pc to mac and android to ios, and flac files aren't supported on the iphone. i'm considering converting all my flac files to alac, and am limited to software on my mac (i used to use dbpoweramp on my pc). from what i've read, XLD seems to work best on the mac, but after converting a sample flac to alac, i opened both files up in audacity and noticed that the flac file stated the bit depth was 32 bit float, vs. the newly converted alac file said 16 bit pcm.

any idea why there might be a difference? i don't see any settings in XLD that may indicate any reason for discrepancies. i'm just looking for an exact conversion so that zero quality is lost, and i'm not sure why converting would change the bit depth.

please advise. thanks!

converting flac to alac; 32 bit float vs. 16 bit pcm

Reply #1 –
FLAC does not support 32-bit floating point samples. Either you are misinterpreting what Audacity is telling you, or Audacity is displaying incorrect information. Most FLAC files use either 16-bit or 24-bit integer samples.

If you encoded the FLAC files yourself from CDs, they most likely use 16-bit integer samples.

converting flac to alac; 32 bit float vs. 16 bit pcm

Reply #2 –
thanks for your response. what do you suppose the 32-bit float for the flac file on the upper right means? and why does it say 16 bit pcm for the converted alac file?

http://postimg.org/image/3jnjaacdh/

converting flac to alac; 32 bit float vs. 16 bit pcm

Reply #4 –
Audacity convert any input file to 32-bit float, to provide ample headroom. It doesn't say anything about the input file.

You can't use Audacity to convert a file losslessly.
Music: sounds arranged such that they construct feelings.

converting flac to alac; 32 bit float vs. 16 bit pcm

Reply #5 –
i'm not converting with audacity. i'm converting with XLD. i'm using audacity to view the spectrograms and other information about the file...

converting flac to alac; 32 bit float vs. 16 bit pcm

Reply #6 –
Quote from: nelce on
i'm not converting with audacity.

...or so you think.  Looking is fine, just don't mindlessly save with Audacity expecting zero quality loss in the output file.

...don't assume Audacity is telling you something about the original source file, either; at least I'm not assuming it, but then again I don't use Audacity.

converting flac to alac; 32 bit float vs. 16 bit pcm

Reply #7 –
Audacity imports the audio data into an internal format. It isn't necessarily displaying information about the FLAC file itself.

converting flac to alac; 32 bit float vs. 16 bit pcm

Reply #9 –
I like Spek and Spectro for spectrograms needs.

converting flac to alac; 32 bit float vs. 16 bit pcm

Reply #10 –
If you are guilty of paying Adobe a monthly licensing fee, you can also try Audition, which has a spectrogram timeline view, which works quite nicely. Also keeps files in their original format, until you decide to add them to a multi-track project, and even then, it only spawns newly converted intermediate files, rather than changing the originals, and it appears to only convert the sample rates.

Quite expensive though, but if you're already paying to use their all access plan, may as well make use of what they're giving you.